MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for democracy

Machado has spent nearly a year in hiding due to political persecution by the government of Nicolás Maduro

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, recognizing her for “her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and “her struggle for a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Machado, 58, has spent nearly a year in hiding due to political persecution by the government of Nicolás Maduro and became the first Venezuelan ever to receive the distinction. “As a leader of the democratic movement in Venezuela, María Corina Machado stands as one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Nobel Committee, during the announcement.

BREAKING NEWS
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPeacePrize to Maria Corina Machado 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… pic.twitter.com/Zgth8KNJk9

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 10, 2025

The committee highlighted Machado’s unifying role within Venezuela’s historically divided opposition, crediting her with helping to build a common front around the demand for free elections and representative government.

The daughter of a prominent steel entrepreneur, Machado was the frontrunner of the opposition in the 2024 presidential elections but was disqualified by the pro-government Comptroller General. In the October 2023 opposition primaries, she won an overwhelming 92.5% of the vote, cementing her leadership.

Following the disputed July 2024 elections, widely condemned by the international community, Venezuela’s Attorney General opened an investigation into Machado for allegedly supporting U.S. sanctions against Caracas. Since then, she has lived in secrecy, briefly reappearing in January during protests against Maduro’s inauguration.

“This award is not for me, but for all Venezuelans who continue to believe in freedom and democracy despite repression,” Machado said in a statement released by her team after the announcement.

The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded annually since 1901, honors individuals or organizations that have made exceptional contributions to promoting peace and fraternity among nations. In 2024, the prize went to Nihon Hidankyo, Japan’s national association of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.