Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her fearless advocacy for democracy amid authoritarian repression.
This means United States President Donald Trump has been snubbed by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The award comes against a backdrop of intense speculation fueled by Trump’s repeated public pleas for the prize.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, while awarding María Corina Machado, praised her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
María Corina Machado, 58, who has lived in hiding due to death threats from the Nicolás Maduro regime, embodies civilian courage in Latin America, the committee explained.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said María Corina Machado had satisfied all three criteria for the Nobel Peace Prize.
“She has brought her country’s opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarization of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy,” he said Friday.
Frydnes also stated he is not sure whether María Corina Machado will be able to attend the peace prize ceremony in Norway in December.
“It’s a question of security. It’s too early to say. We always hope to have the laureate with us in Oslo, but this is a serious security situation which needs to be handled first,” Frydnes added.
Machado went into hiding after the Venezuelan regime moved to crush dissent following last year’s election
A press release posted on the official website of the Nobel Peace Prize also added that: “She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
“As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.
“Ms Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government. This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree. At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground.”
Who is María Corina Machado?
María Corina Machado is a leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, which has campaigned for free elections and representative government.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, in 1967, Machado trained as an industrial engineer before entering politics. In 2002, she founded Súmate, a volunteer group that promotes political rights and monitors elections in Venezuela.
Freedom House, a monitoring group, says Venezuela’s democratic institutions have deteriorated since 1999, “but conditions have grown sharply worse in recent years” due to the harsh crackdown by the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate in the 2024 election, but Maduro’s regime blocked her from running. She then switched her support to the party of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
Reacting to the development, Nina Græger, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), said that María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize is “above all, a prize for democracy.”
“Research shows that democracy is an important precondition for peace. At a moment when authoritarianism is on the rise across the world, this award highlights the courage of those who defend freedom with ballots, not bullets,” Græger said in a statement.
White House Reacts
The United States government has blasted the Norwegian Nobel Committee for what it described as a politically motivated decision after Trump was overlooked for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.
In a strongly worded statement posted early Friday on X (formerly Twitter), White House Communications Director Steven Cheung accused the committee of prioritising “politics over peace,” following the announcement that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado had been named this year’s laureate.
“He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” Cheung said of Trump. “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
