Oslo: Venezuelan Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado's daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her mother's behalf on Wednesday, hours after officials said Machado would miss the ceremony.

Machado has been in hiding and has not been seen in public since January 9, when she was briefly detained after joining supporters in a protest in Caracas, Venezuela's capital.

Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, told the award ceremony that “Maria Corina Machado has done everything in her power to be able to attend the ceremony here today — a journey in a situation of extreme danger.”

“Although she will not be able to reach this ceremony and today's events, we are profoundly happy to confirm that she is safe, and that she will be with us here in Oslo,” he said to applause.

The director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute and Machado's spokesperson said earlier on Wednesday that she wouldn't be able to attend the ceremony. Her daughter Ana Corina Sosa did instead. Maria Corina Machado said in an audio recording of a phone call published on the Nobel website that many people had “risked their lives” for her to arrive in Oslo.