Agencies, Machado, A 58-year-old industrial engineer, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela’s courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.
Maduro, whose 12 years in office have been marked by deep economic and social crisis, was sworn in for a third term in January this year, despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the U.S. reward offered for his capture.
After being blocked from running in 2024, Machado threw herself into campaigning for her replacement, former ambassador Edmundo Gonzalez, drawing crowds that sometimes numbered in the thousands, according to attendees and images captured by media.
But several members of Machado’s inner circle have faced arrest, including her head of security at the time of the campaign, and six members of her team took refuge in Argentina’s embassy after prosecutors issued warrants for their arrest.
“Oh my God … I have no words,” Machado told the secretary of the award body, Kristian Berg Harpviken, in a phone call which the committee posted on social media.
“I don’t deserve this,” she added.
It was not immediately clear whether she would be able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10.
Should she not attend, she would join the list of Peace Prize laureates prevented from doing so in the award’s 124-year-history, including Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Poland’s Lech Walesa in 1983 and Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.
Machado is the first Venezuelan national to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the sixth from Latin America.
‘The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to Maria Corina Machado. She’s receiving the Nobel Peace Prize
The United Nations human rights office welcomed the award to Machado as a recognition of “the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections”.
The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Joergen Watne Frydnes, said he hoped the award would spur the Venezuelan opposition’s work.
“We hope that the entire opposition will have renewed energy to continue the work for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” Frydnes told Reuters after the announcement.
It could also strengthen international pressure against the Maduro administration, said Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, Juanita Goebertus Estrada.
The lead-up to this year’s award was dominated by Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserved to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Trump is also a fierce critic of Maduro.
