Maduro takes to streets after opposition leader Machado receives Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro went to the streets on Wednesday and marched with supporters through downtown Caracas, hours after opposition leader María Corina Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Maduro appeared on stage after walking with supporters singing a new song, based on the classic song by Bobby McFerrin “Don’t Worry be happy.” Maduro mocked María Corina Machado, calling her in derogatory terms and saying they filled the Nobel Peace Prize with blood and war.

Venezuelan opposition leader Machado was absent Wednesday from the ceremony in Norway in which she was to receive this year’s Nobel Peace Prize award.

Machado’s daughter accepted the award on her behalf in a ceremony that became a rally for democracy, and equally, an indictment of Venezuela’s government, with attendees hearing in detail documented human rights abuses carried out against real or perceived opponents of President Nicolás Maduro. Machado herself then later appeared in the night at the balcony of a hotel in Oslo where Peace Prize recipients traditionally stay.

Machado had not been seen in public since Jan. 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in an anti-government protest in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital. The following day, Maduro was sworn in to a third six-year term despite credible evidence that he lost the presidential election.

By Rédaction Africanews