Panama's President to Support María Corina Machado at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony

Since Mulino assumed the presidency of Panama on July 1, 2024, he has expressed his international support for Machado's movement to rescue democracy in Venezuela. The president of Panama, José Raúl Mulino, traveled this Sunday to Oslo as a special guest of María Corina Machado for the ceremony for the awarding of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to the Venezuelan opposition leader next Wednesday, December 10, the Panamanian Government reported. The official information highlights in this sense that the Panamanian head of state not only announced his support for the Venezuelan opposition movement but also allowed the original ballots from that vote to be received in Panama to be guarded as international evidence. His stance even led to the breaking of diplomatic relations between Panama and Venezuela on July 29, 2024, after the current regime refused to carry out a full review of the ballots from the last Venezuelan elections, amid strong fraud allegations. In Panama City, as in several countries in the Americas, Venezuelans joined this Saturday in support of the global marches "for peace and freedom" in Venezuela convened by the opposition leader and former deputy of the South American country on Thursday. Machado, awarded "for her tireless work in the promotion of democratic rights and her struggle for a peaceful transition", publicly thanked Mulino, Peña and Noboa for accepting to accompany her. "As a Panamanian, as president and as a democrat, it is a great opportunity to be there, to support this woman, a symbol of the tenacious fight against a dictatorship that has the Venezuelan people oppressed, humiliated and impoverished," he said. Also expected to attend the ceremony in Oslo is Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González Urrutia, exiled in Spain, and who faced Nicolás Maduro in the July 2024 elections. The ruler, who traveled to Oslo with the First Lady, Maricel Cohen de Mulino, is one of the 4 Latin American heads of state invited by Machado to accompany her to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, along with Daniel Noboa (Ecuador), Santiago Peña (Paraguay) and Javier Milei (Argentina), states an official communiqué. Last October, Machado stated that she could only be present in Oslo if "Venezuela were free". The Norwegian Nobel Committee recently declared that Machado has made it clear that she will travel to Oslo to receive the prize, although her attendance is still unknown. "It will be a great honor to share with other invited leaders at this important event," affirmed Mulino, according to the communiqué. He also revealed that he faces direct threats and that leaving the country would put his safety at risk.