Norway’s largest peace organization, the Norwegian Peace Council, has announced that it would forego its traditional torchlight procession for the Nobel Peace Prize winner this year after widespread dissatisfaction with the Nobel Committee’s selection of Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado as this year’s laureate.
Eline H. Lorentzen, Chairwoman of the Peace Council, explained that:
We have great respect for the Nobel Committee and the Peace Prize as an institution, but as an organization we must also be true to our own principles and the broad peace movement we represent. We look forward to celebrating the Peace Prize again in the coming years.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee shocked the global pro-peace community with its selection of Machado as this year’s Prize winner, as the Venezuelan has over decades openly appealed to the US, Israel, and other countries to use military force to overthrow the sitting Venezuelan president and install her into power.
Not only has Machado urged the overthrow of the sitting Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, who the US Central Intelligence Agency has been given the green light by President Trump to hunt down, but she also openly called for the overthrow of Maduro’s predecessor, the late President Hugo Chavez.
While the solid majority worldwide across the political spectrum has reacted with horror at Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, “Peace Prize” winner Machado sent a letter to Israeli prime minister Netanyahu telling him that she “greatly appreciates his decisions and decisive actions in the war.”
In December, 2018, Machado sent a letter to Netanyahu requesting Israeli aid in overthrowing the Venezuelan government by force, an action that would undoubtedly result in many thousands of deaths and injuries.
The timing of the Nobel Committee selecting Machado, just as the United States is attacking boats off the coast of Venezuela and openly threatening to launch ground operations against Venezuela, has likewise raised more than a few eyebrows.
Ron Paul Institute chairman Ron Paul recently wrote:
Is the Nobel Peace Prize just another deep state, soft-power tool intended to boost the US global military empire? The timing of the award going to the relatively unknown Machado is suspicious. President Trump has parked an armada of warships off the Venezuelan coast as his aides openly talk about ‘decapitation’ strikes on the Venezuelan government. After the extrajudicial killing of some 20 civilians in his attacks on at least four boats off the Venezuelan coast, President Trump is openly bragging that no one dares launch a boat in the area.
As with its selection of US President Barack “drone strike” Obama and European “protester-savaging” Union as previous laureates, the Nobel Committee continues to embarrass itself and discredit the original intent of the Prize.
The Norwegian Peace Council deserves credit for sticking up for its principles in the face of powerful opposition. The Nobel Committee? Not so much.
