Discurso completo de Ana Corina Sosa en Oslo: "La libertad vencerá al miedo"

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:01][cheering] [applause] [applause] >> Imagine waking up one day to realize most of the people you grew up with are gone. Your neighbors, your cousins, your childhood friends, they've just left.

[00:00:22]Not because of war, not because of a national a natural disaster, but because an entire country collapsed from within.

[00:00:31]That is what happened in Venezuela.

[00:00:33]More than 8 million people have left my country in just over a decade. That is almost a third of our population, more than the entire population of Norway.

[00:00:43]And this did not happen in a poor country. Venezuela sits on top of the largest proven oil reserves on earth. We should be one of the most prosperous countries in the Americas.

[00:00:54]Instead, almost half of our people cannot afford three meals a day.

[00:01:00]One in every three Venezuelan children suffer from malnutrition. And our teachers, they earn less than a dollar per month.

[00:01:08]A dollar.

[00:01:10]Venezuela is the richest poor country in the world.

[00:01:16]My name is Ana Karina Sosa. And 14 years ago, I became one of those 8 million people.

[00:01:22]I was forced to flee my country because of the constant threats by the Chavista regime against my family.

[00:01:29]Today, I live in New York and I work in technology.

[00:01:32]But before data and geopolitics, I understood what it means to watch your country lose its freedom.

[00:01:39]I was 12 years old the night before my mother, Maria Corina Machado, was ordered to appear before a corrupt prosecutor on false accusations of conspiracy and treason.

[00:01:52]She was facing a possible 12-year prison sentence, and I was only 12 years old.

[00:01:57]That night she sat beside me, held my hand, and told me she could not promise me when we would see each other again.

[00:02:04]But with a conviction I had never witnessed before, she said, "I am doing this for you, for your brothers, and the future of our country."

[00:02:13]That was the first time I realized that some fights are bigger than any one person.

[00:02:19]But the repression did not stop there.

[00:02:22]In 2013, government-affiliated groups violently attacked opposition movement members inside the National Assembly. I had to see my mother's face beaten and swollen beyond recognition.

[00:02:37]And at this point I learned the true purpose of authoritarianism.

[00:02:41]It was not only to control institutions, but to break individuals, to separate families, to make people so afraid, so paralyzed, that they stop believing fighting for freedom is worth it.

[00:02:55]But millions of brave, ordinary Venezuelans have never stopped believing. Not the thousands of families of political prisoners that spent years outside prison walls demanding their release. Not the millions who have been forced to flee, that carry Venezuela with them across oceans and borders. And not the people who remain inside Venezuela risking everything to defend democracy.

[00:03:21]Last year, my mother spent 16 months living in hiding with constant threats to her life, moved between safe houses by people who risked their own freedom to protect hers.

[00:03:32]Ordinary people with extraordinary courage.

[00:03:37]My grandmother was smuggled out of her home, and my entire family was forced into exile. And I crossed the world denouncing our stolen elections and the crimes against humanity committed by the regime. Carrying the voice of millions of Venezuelans who could no longer speak freely inside their own country.

[00:03:57]And in December, here in this city, I stood before the world at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to honor my mother and give voice to them.

[00:04:08]>> [applause] >> Because my fight has never been about one person or one family. It is about an entire nation that continues to endure.

[00:04:21]Democracies, they don't die overnight.

[00:04:23]They erode slowly, one day you wake up to realize the country you knew is gone. And everyone has a role in this fight.

[00:04:35]And that's why I have worked dedicated to defend institutions that societies rely on. So, journalists, please tell your stories honestly. Authoritarianism depends on the world looking away. And business leaders and investors, we will need you when we rebuild, but democracy, freedom, and rule of law must come first.

[00:04:55]I know freedom is possible because I have seen what ordinary people are capable of when love becomes stronger than fear.

[00:05:02]And ultimately, that is what the fight has always been about for me. That one day Venezuelan families can return home, including my own. Return to rebuild a more prosperous, free, and democratic Venezuela for the next generation.

[00:05:16]Because freedom is never guaranteed.

[00:05:20]It survives only when ordinary people decide it is worth defending. Thank you.

[00:05:32]>> [applause] [applause] >> Woo!

[00:05:43]Woo!

[00:05:47]>> [applause] >> Woo!