Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, from Venezuela, were awarded the 2024 Sakharov Prize.
The President of the European Parliament Roberta Metzola announced on Thursday in the Strasbourg plenary the winners of the 2024 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, following the meeting of the Conference of Presidents (i.e. the President of the EP and the heads of political groups) where the decision was taken.
“The 2024 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded to María Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia for their courageous fight to restore freedom and democracy in Venezuela. In their quest for a fair, free and peaceful transfer of power, they courageously supported the values that millions of Venezuelans and the European Parliament hold dear: justice, democracy and the rule of law. The European Parliament supports the people of Venezuela, María Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia in their fight for their country’s democratic future. This award is theirs”, said the president of the EP.
Machado was chosen as the opposition candidate for Venezuela’s 2023 presidential election on behalf of the “Democratic Unity Platform”, but was later disqualified by the regime-controlled National Electoral Council.
Urrutia, a diplomat and politician who succeeded her as candidate of the “Democratic Unity Platform”, denounced the Venezuelan government’s failure to publish the official results of the presidential elections and challenged Nicolás Maduro’s declaration of victory. Gonzalez Urrutia fled the country in September after a warrant was issued for his arrest.
The September Resolution
In a resolution adopted on September 19, 2024, Parliament highlighted that international election observation missions made it clear that the presidential elections in Venezuela did not meet international integrity standards. In this context, he recognized Edmundo González Urrutia as the legitimate and democratically elected president of the country and María Corina Machado as the leader of the democratic forces. Parliament also condemned electoral fraud and the serious and systematic violations of human rights committed against the democratic opposition, the Venezuelan people and civil society.
According to the Venezuelan government, 2,400 people were arrested during post-election protests, while non-governmental organizations reported 24 deaths. María Corina Machado remains in hiding, while Edmundo González Urrutia fled to Spain, which granted him political asylum on September 7.
In the same resolution, Parliament called on the EU to extend sanctions against the Venezuelan regime and to implement targeted sanctions through the EU’s global human rights sanctions regime against Nicolás Maduro and his inner circle. Before the elections, the European Parliament called on Member States to maintain the sanctions imposed on the Maduro regime and criticized the unconstitutional decision to bar prominent opposition figures, such as María Corina Machado, from the 2024 elections.
In 2017, the Sakharov Prize was awarded to the democratic opposition in Venezuela, with Parliament denouncing the “unacceptable situation in Venezuela”.