Venezuelans María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia win the 2024 Sakharov Prize
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, emphasized that the opponents have fought for a free, fair and peaceful transition of power and have courageously defended the values that millions of Venezuelans cherish: justice, democracy and the rule of law.
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado with opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez.
Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia were awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2024. The announcement was made by the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola.
According to Metsola, Machado and Gonzalez represent all Venezuelans, inside and outside the country, who fight to restore freedoms and democracy in the face of injustice.
Metsola said that they both have fought for a free, fair and peaceful transition of power and have bravely defended those values that millions of Venezuelans cherish: justice, democracy and the rule of law.
AFP reported that Machado and González Urrutia was chosen over Azerbaijani economist and anti-corruption activist Gubad Ibadoghlu and the Israeli and Palestinian women's movements Women of the Sun and Women for Peace.
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded annually by the European Parliament and honors the Soviet nuclear physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. The award comes with a prize of $53,000.
In 2023, the Sakharov Prize was awarded posthumously to Mahsa Amini, a young Iranian woman killed in 2022 while in police custody in her country.
The winners of the Sakharov Prize were chosen on Thursday by the Conference of Presidents, which is composed of Roberta Metsola and the leaders of the political groups. The award ceremony will take place on December 18 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.
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