Venezuelan opposition leaders Machado, Gonzalez win EU’s top rights prize
Al Jazeera
Pair honoured three months after election they say was rigged in favour of President Nicolas Maduro.
The European Union has awarded its top human rights prize to Venezuelan opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
The European Parliament announced the winners of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought on Thursday, honouring Machado and Gonzalez for “representing the people of Venezuela fighting to restore freedom and democracy”.
Machado ran as the democratic opposition candidate in Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election but was disqualified by the government. Gonzalez, who had not run for office before, took her place.
“Edmundo and Maria have continued to fight for the free, fair, and peaceful transition of power and have fearlessly upheld those values that millions of Venezuelans and this parliament hold so dear: justice, democracy and the rule of law,” said parliament chief Roberta Metsola.
The National Electoral Council said incumbent Nicolas Maduro won re-election with 51 percent of the vote – his third win since he first took over as president in 2013 after the death of his mentor, former President Hugo Chavez.
