Nobel Peace Prize 2025 updates: Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado wins

• Machado, 58, was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on October 7, 1967.
• She is an industrial engineer by training, and her father was a prominent businessman in Venezuela’s steel industry. Her upper-class roots have been criticised by Venezuela’s governing socialist party.
• Machado won a resounding victory in the opposition’s primary election in 2023 and her rallies attracted large crowds, but a ban from holding public office prevented her from running for president against Nicolas Maduro in an election in 2024, and she went into hiding.
• The country’s electoral authority and top court say Maduro won the election, though they have never published detailed tallies.
• Machado emerged from hiding to make a brief appearance during a protest before Maduro’s inauguration in January. She was briefly arrested and then freed.
• Machado advocates for liberal economic reforms, including the privatisation of state-owned enterprises such as PDVSA, Venezuela’s oil company. She also supports the creation of welfare programs aimed at aiding the country’s poorest.
• Machado is isolated in Venezeula as nearly all of her senior advisers have been detained or forced to leave the country. Machado has accused Maduro’s administration of operating as a “criminal mafia”.

The decision to award Venezuela’s Machado is a “prize for democracy”, says Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) director, Nina Graeger.

“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,” Graeger said in a post on X.

“Machado’s courageous commitment to free and fair elections and accountable governance in Venezuela reflects the belief that lasting peace is built on the foundations of democracy.”

She added: “This year, PRIO’s own shortlist for the Nobel Peace Prize emphasised the crucial role of election observers – the very work Machado has long contributed to – underscoring that credible elections remain the cornerstone of democracy and peace.”

The Nobel Committee is hoping that Machado’s win “will support her cause and not limit it”.

“This is the discussion we have every year for all candidates, particularly when the person who receives the prize is, in fact, in hiding because of serious threats to her life,” Chairman Frydne said, when asked by reporters about the considerations the committee made for Machado’s safety and security in awarding her the prize.

When asked by reporters about Trump’s very public desire to win the peace prize, the Nobel Committee’s chairman, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, responded that they only base their decision “on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel”.

“We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say, what for them leads to peace. This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity,” he said.

“So, we base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”

The Norwegian Nobel Committee says in its announcement of this year’s winner that it has always “honoured brave women and men who have stood up to repression, who have carried the hope of freedom in prison cells, on the streets and in public squares, and who have shown by their actions that peaceful resistance can change the world”.

“In the past year, Ms Machado has been forced to live in hiding despite serious threats against her life,” the committee added. “She has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions.”

The committee said it was “crucial” to recognise “courageous defenders of freedom” and democracy.

“Maria Corina Machado meets all the three criteria stated in Alfred Nobel’s will for the selection of a peace prize,” the committee stated.

It added: “She has brought her country’s opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarisation of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy.”

Here’s more from the Nobel Committee’s speech about Machado’s win for her role as part of Venezuela’s opposition:

• The efforts of the collective opposition, both before and during the election, were innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic.
• The opposition received international support when its leaders publicised the vote counts that had been collected from the country’s election districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin.
• But the regime refused to accept the election result and clung to power. Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace.
• However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence.
• The Venezuelan regime’s rigid hold on power and its repression of its population are not unique in the world. We see the same trends globally.
• Rule of law is abused by those in control, free media silences, critics are imprisoned and societies are pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarisation.
• In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer are free and fair.

The Nobel Committee says:

• As the founder of Sumate, an organisation devoted to democratic development, Ms Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago.
• As she said, it was a choice of ballots over bullets in political office and in her service to organisations.
• Since then, Ms Machado has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights, and popular representation.
• She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people ahead of the 2024 election.
• Ms Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She then backed the representative of a different party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in the election.
• Hundreds of thousands of volunteers mobilised across political divides. They were trained as election observers to ensure a transparent and fair election, despite the risk of harassment, arrest and torture of citizens.
• They made sure the final tallies were documented, before the regime could destroy ballots and lie about the outcome.

“2025 goes to a brave and committed champion of peace, to a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness,” the committee said of Machado’s win.

They added: “As the leader of the Democratic Forces 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.”

The Nobel Committee has announced Maria Corina Machado as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“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,” the committee stated in the announcement.