Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize : NPR

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, seen here (right) during an election campaign in Venezuela last year, won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.

Lexi Parra for NPR

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Lexi Parra for NPR

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Machado’s announcement as winner of the prestigious award came as a surprise after intense speculation that President Trump could be a winner after brokering a ceasefire in Gaza this week.

But the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday that Machado’s tireless work for the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people was “one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times.”

Machado, who is barred from running for president and lives in hiding, “keeps the flame of democracy burning amid growing darkness” in President Nicolás Maduro’s “brutal and authoritarian” Venezuela, the commission said.

“Oh my God, I have no words”

In a video of Machado receiving the news posted on the Nobel Prize website and social media, she expressed shock at her victory.

“Oh my God, I have no words.” she said.

“I’m just one person. I certainly don’t deserve this,” she continues, adding that it’s “the success of an entire society.”

The 58-year-old is one of the strongest critics of Maduro’s ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which came to power in the late 1990s under former President Hugo Chávez. Maduro succeeded Chávez in 2013.

An industrial engineer by profession and a former lawmaker in the Venezuelan National Assembly, Machado was shot at and targeted by federal prosecutors. She had hoped to run in the July 2024 presidential elections, but was barred from running. Instead, she supported another party, led by Edmundo González Urrutia.

The pro-Maduro National Electoral Council claimed that President Maduro had won a third term with 51% of the vote, but the opposition said the vote was rigged and that evidence showed González won a landslide victory.

Election observers noted numerous irregularities in the elections, which were widely rejected by the international community as neither free nor fair.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado salutes from the top of a truck during the closing rally of presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez’s election campaign in Caracas, Venezuela, July 25, 2024.

Matias Delacroix/AP

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Matias Delacroix/AP

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets to protest, but these demonstrations were suppressed by the government and Machado went into hiding in August 2024 after receiving death threats. However, she did not flee the country and remains in Venezuela where she has vowed to continue fighting.

“I trust the Venezuelan people and I have no doubt that the result of our fight will be the liberation of Venezuela. Maduro is totally isolated, weaker than ever. And our people want and need to know that I am here with him,” Machado told NPR. All things considered last year.

Former lawmaker and opposition leader María Corina Machado speaks to National Guard soldiers standing guard outside the attorney general’s office where she arrives to testify in Caracas, Venezuela, December 3, 2014. Machado appeared in court to testify after being charged with plotting to assassinate Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

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Ariana Cubillos/AP

Machado is a right-wing politician considered Venezuela’s “iron lady” – the nickname of former British conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher – who favors the privatization of the state oil company and free market policies, and who supports international efforts to isolate and pressure the Venezuelan government. She was praised by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who as a senator co-signed a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee endorsing Machado for the 2024 peace prize.

After announcing her victory on Friday, she then congratulated President Trump, posting in English on social media: “I dedicate this award to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support for our cause!”

Maybe next year for Trump?

This year, there were 338 candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize, comprising 244 individuals and 94 organizations. Bookmakers said Thursday that the odds favored Trump and Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a network of volunteers helping civilians despite great risks amid the country’s civil war.

Trump has long insisted he deserves this prestigious global honor. Last month he told the United Nations General Assembly: “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize. » He said earlier this year that he thought he should win it, but that the committee wouldn’t give it to him.

He was nominated for the award by leaders including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But experts say the ceasefire in Gaza may have come too late to change the outcome of this year’s prize, and the committee is known for valuing sustained peace efforts.

Trump’s White House communications director, Steven Cheung, reacted to Machado’s victory on social media, posting: “The Nobel Committee has proven that they put politics before peace.”

“President Trump will continue to make peace deals, end wars and save lives. He has a humanitarian heart,” he added.

Machado has expressed support for Trump, particularly after the United States announced a $50 million bounty for information leading to the arrest of President Maduro in August. “We are very grateful to President Trump for his decisive action in favor of freedom in Venezuela,” Machado said in an interview on Fox News.

During Trump’s first term, his administration waged a “maximum pressure” campaign against the Maduro government. Since his return to power, Trump has again had Venezuela in his sights. The US military has carried out several deadly strikes against boats it says were transporting drugs in the Caribbean, three of them departing from Venezuela.

The Maduro government says Trump is using targeting drug cartels as a pretext for regime change.

The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony will take place on December 10 in Oslo and, given Machado’s current situation in hiding, it is unclear whether she will be able to attend.