OSLO – The Nobel Peace Prize remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation that won it, though the medal can be given away, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday (Jan 16), a day after last year’s winner gave her medal to US President Donald Trump.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave her medal on Thursday to Trump, who thanked her for it. The White House released a photo of Trump and Machado, with Trump holding up a gold-coloured frame displaying it, and a White House official said Trump intends to keep it.

Machado’s award also consists of a diploma and 11 million Swedish crowns (S$1.5 million).

“Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize,” the award body said in a statement.

“There are no restrictions in the statutes of the Nobel Foundation on what a laureate may do with the medal, the diploma, or the prize money. This means that a laureate is free to keep, give away, sell, or donate these items,” it added.

‘Inseparably linked’

The medal and the diploma are physical symbols confirming that an individual or organisation has been awarded the prize, said the five-strong award committee.

“The prize itself – the honour and recognition – remains inseparably linked to the person or organisation designated as the laureate by the Norwegian Nobel Committee,” it said.

The committee, which did not refer to Trump and Machado by name in its statement, said it does not comment on a laureate’s statements, decisions or actions after the prize is announced.

It was not the first time a Nobel laureate has given away the medal. In 1943 Nobel literature laureate Knut Hamsun gave his to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

In 2022, Nobel Peace laureate Dmitry Muratov sold his medal for US$100 million to raise money for the UN children’s fund Unicef to help Ukrainian refugee children.

In 2024, the widow of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan donated his 2001 Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma to the UN office in Geneva.

Venezuelan leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado said on Thursday, in an extensive and heavily attended press conference in Oslo, that the Venezuelan opposition is “working hard” with the US government to explain in detail its plan for a transition, but she denied being involved in the operations the Trump administration is conducting in the Caribbean.

“We are not involved at all in decisions or operations related to other countries’ national security. That’s to say, each country has its own right to legitimate defense, and when they feel their national security is at stake, they act accordingly,” she said.

She also admitted that they are working hard not only with the United States, but with other governments in Latin America and Europe, to explain the plans the opposition has for its “first 100 hours and the following 100 days” in power in a country facing “a multidimensional crisis.”

In her view, this is “not only a humanitarian crisis, but also a financial crisis, a public services crisis, and a security crisis, all at the same time.”

Machado asserted that Venezuela “has already been invaded” by Russian and Iranian agents, terrorist groups, and cartels that operate freely in collusion with Nicolás Maduro’s “regime.” She therefore urged cutting off the flow of financing that sustains a very powerful system of repression, and she called on “democratic countries” to block the revenues that support “the regime’s repressive structure.”

The opposition leader, who traveled to Oslo secretly yesterday to receive the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize after months in hiding, told the BBC that she will return to Venezuela despite knowing “exactly the risks” involved.

“Of course I’m going to return. I know exactly the risks I face. I will be wherever I am most useful to our cause,” she said in an interview with the BBC released today.

“Until recently, the place where I believed I had to be was Venezuela; the place where I believe I must be today, on behalf of our cause, is Oslo,” she added.

The opposition leader spoke after appearing last night on the balcony of a Norwegian hotel, where she was greeted with shouts of “brave” from a crowd that then sang the Venezuelan national anthem.

“During more than 16 months I have not been able to hug or touch anyone. Suddenly, in a matter of hours, I have been able to see the people I love most, touch them, cry, and pray together,” she added.

Machado has long denounced the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as “criminal” and has called on Venezuelans to unite to overthrow him.

“The Venezuelan government says that I am a terrorist and that I must spend the rest of my life in prison, and they are pursuing me,” she said. “So leaving Venezuela today, under these circumstances, is very, very dangerous,” Machado admitted.

“I only want to say today that I am here because many men and women risked their lives so that I could reach Oslo.”

She was barred from running in last year’s presidential elections. Then she handed over leadership of the candidacy to Edmundo González Urrutia. Maduro obtained a third six-year term, according to the Electoral Commission, but the results were widely dismissed nationally and internationally due to the government’s refusal to release the tally sheets, highly favorable to Gonzalez (67 to 30%), something it had committed to before the elections.

“We need to address this regime not as a conventional dictatorship, but as a criminal structure,” Machado said, accusing Maduro’s regime of being financed by criminal activities such as drug trafficking and human trafficking. She reiterated her calls for the international community to help Venezuela “cut those flows” of criminal resources.

Maduro, for his part, has always denied having ties to drug cartels.

When asked whether she would support a US military strike on Venezuelan soil, given Washington’s recent attacks on suspected drug-laden vessels, Machado did not answer directly. Instead, she accused Maduro of “handing over our sovereignty to criminal organizations.”

She said that she and her team are prepared to form a government in Venezuela and that she offered to meet with Maduro’s team to seek a peaceful transition, but “they rejected it.”

Last month, Venezuela’s attorney general said Machado would be considered a fugitive if she traveled to Norway to collect her prize, claiming she was accused of “acts of conspiracy, incitement to hatred, and terrorism.”

According to the BBC, the details of her trip to Oslo were kept so secret that even the Nobel Institute did not know where she was or whether she would arrive in time for the ceremony, which was attended on her behalf by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa.

According to The Wall Street Journal, to escape Venezuela Machado disguised herself, passed through 10 military checkpoints without being detected, and escaped in a wooden boat from a coastal fishing village. The plan took two months to prepare, according to the paper, which cited a person close to the operation.

A Venezuelan network that helps people flee the country reportedly assisted in her escape.

In Venezuela, official media did not report on the award. The morning and midday editions of the two main private television stations also made no mention of the ceremony, held at 8:00 a.m. Venezuelan time.

The event—attended by opposition members and Latin American presidents—was also not covered by the state media conglomerate headed by Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), which did broadcast images of rallies in the Norwegian capital that President Nicolás Maduro himself praised.

Ironically, VTV has mentioned the Nobel, particularly in reference to criticism from Chavismo, whose top leaders have dismissed the award granted to Machado, claiming it is “stained with blood.”

A quake in Colombia—felt on the Venezuelan border—the signing of a decree to boost non-oil exports, the death of a white lion cub born in the city of Maracay, and even Leonardo DiCaprio’s recognition as artist of the year by Time magazine were among the news items highlighted by one of the private newscasts.

In another outlet, coverage focused on the presentation of the Productive Economy Council, the flight of two U.S. F-18 fighter jets over waters of the Gulf of Venezuela, and the anticipated approval of a law to withdraw the country from the Rome Statute and thus leave the International Criminal Court.

EFE confirmed that in several newspapers circulating in the country, the news did not make the front page. The same was true on the website of the country’s main private radio network.

Nevertheless, in various digital media outlets, mostly of the opposition, Machado’s speech—read on her behalf by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa—was highlighted.

For his part, the president of the National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, criticized on Tuesday the awarding of the prize “to a person who asks for Venezuela to be invaded,” while Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Monday that it is an “auction” awarded to “the highest bidder.”

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Thursday that she does not believe the Venezuelan government knew where she was hiding for most of this year, as she met Norway’s leader a day after her daughter received the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf.

Ms Machado arrived in Oslo hours after Wednesday’s prize ceremony and made her first public appearance in 11 months in the early hours of Thursday.

She emerged from a hotel balcony and waved to an emotional crowd of supporters. She had been in hiding since January 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas.

Ms Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October after mounting the most serious peaceful challenge in years to the authoritarian government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the prize in Oslo and said that Ms Machado “will be back in Venezuela very soon”.

On Thursday Ms Machado was received by Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, who said his country is ready to support a democratic Venezuela in “building new and sound institutions”.

Asked whether the Venezuelan government might have known her whereabouts since January, Ms Machado told reporters: “I don’t think they have known where I have been, and certainly they would have done everything to stop me from coming here.”