Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the prize was given for her “tireless work to promote the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela” and for her efforts toward a “just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
Announcing the decision on October 10, the committee described Machado as a “brave and dedicated fighter for peace” and “the woman who keeps the flame of democracy alive amid growing darkness.” It also said she has become one of the clearest examples of civic courage in Latin America in recent years.
Machado was born in 1967 in Caracas. She first worked on charitable initiatives and entered politics in 2002 as a co-founder of Sumate, an organization defending political rights. In 2010 she won a parliamentary seat, later founded the liberal movement Vente Venezuela, and in 2014 lost her mandate after addressing the Organization of American States on Venezuela’s situation while formally representing Panama.
In 2023, Machado announced her presidential bid, won the opposition primary, and, in the committee’s view, became the key figure who helped unite a previously fractured opposition. After the authorities barred her from the election, she backed another party’s candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. The committee said that during the 2024 campaign, hundreds of thousands of volunteers and observers worked peacefully to protect electoral transparency despite threats of arrest and persecution.
“Maria Corina Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace. She embodies hope for a different future in which citizens’ fundamental rights are protected and their voices are heard,” the Nobel Committee said.
The laureate will receive a medal, a diploma, and 1 million Swedish kronor. Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes declined to say whether Machado would be able to attend the December ceremony: it is known that she is in hiding somewhere in Venezuela, and her exact location is not being disclosed for security reasons.