The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader, it was announced Friday at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
Machado won “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 Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.
Machado, who turned 58 earlier this week, has spent months in hiding because of threats to her life. She was detained for a time in January after an opposition rally, the same week that Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term as president in a controversial 2024 election.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the five-person Nobel committee said in its citation.
Machado and Edmundo González, considered the rightful winner of the last Venezuelan election by several governments, including Canada, were previously honoured in December 2024 by the European Parliament with the Sakharov Prize, a human rights award.
Machado was set to run against Maduro in the July 2024 election after being the overwhelming choice in a primary the previous year, but she was disqualified by the government, with González taking her place.
Machado said she was “humbled” in a call with the Norwegian Nobel Institute, while praising others in the movement to oust Maduro.
“This is something that the Venezuelan people deserve,” she said. “I believe that we are very close to achieving, finally, freedom for our country and peace for the region.”
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader. Machado won ‘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 Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.
The Nobel laureates, which this week have included winners in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature, are presented in a ceremony at Oslo City Hall on Dec. 10 — the anniversary of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s death. Nobel laureates also receive a cash prize worth 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1.6 million Cdn).
The committee said it was not clear if Machado would be able to attend due to security reasons.
Machado was selected from a list of 338 nominees, which it said was a significant increase from the number of nominations last year.
The United Nations Human Rights Office on Friday congratulated Machado.
“This recognition reflects the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections, for civil and political rights and for the rule of law,” said the office’s spokesperson, Thameen al-Kheetan.
‘I hope our next success will be a free Venezuela’
For some Venezuelans living in Mexico, the news of Machado’s recognition gave them a glimmer of hope and pride amid the sadness and despair they currently feel over the ongoing situation in their home country.
“I feel great pride that a Venezuelan woman has won the Nobel Peace Prize, and on top of that it’s that it was Maria Corina. She deserves that and so much more…. This has been a 20, 25 year struggle for her,” said Lisette Carolina, 41, who lives in the northern Mexican state of Queretaro.
“I hope our next success will be a free Venezuela.”
Carolina told CBC News that she left Venezuela in 2017 due to the repressive political situation in the country so her daughter could have a brighter future.
“She represents the struggle of all Venezuelan women and it allows us to see the potential that we all have,” said Maria Gabriela, 39, who lives in Mexico City.
“It fills my heart, my heart is overflowing with pride and hope. We have had years of dictatorship, years that they have silenced us,” said Ana Karina, 37, who also lives in Queretaro.
CBC News is not reporting their last names to protect their family members still living in the country.
Thorn in the side of Maduro, Chavez
The U.S. did not recognize Maduro’s 2024 election win, with then-President Joe Biden calling González the “true winner” of the vote. González subsequently fled his country and was granted political asylum in Spain.
Several members of Machado’s inner circle have faced arrest, including her head of security at the time of the campaign; six members of her team took refuge in Argentina’s embassy after prosecutors issued warrants for their arrest.
Machado predicted in 2024 that Maduro would try to steal the election, and she has referred to his United Socialist Party of Venezuela as a “criminal mafia.”
Machado, who has an educational background in industrial engineering, served in Venezuela’s legislature between 2011 and 2014.
Both before and during that period, she criticized and called for the recall of Hugo Chávez, Maduro’s autocratic predecessor. Chávez, who died in 2013, was dismissive in response, once responding to Machado in the National Assembly that “the eagle doesn’t hunt the fly.”
She advocates for liberal economic reforms, including the privatization of state-owned enterprises such as PDVSA, Venezuela’s oil company.
Outspoken, she initially supported efforts to get behind opposition figure Juan Guaidó in 2019 — who was recognized by Canada and other countries as Venezuela’s interim leader, not without objection — but later distanced herself from him, citing several of his tactics and decisions.
WATCH | Machado among those who raised alarms about 2024 vote:
The Trump question
Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have grown even more fraught under U.S. President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Treasury Department increased its award for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million US. More controversially over the past six weeks, the U.S. has used its military to launch deadly strikes on boats it says are being used by Venezuelan drug cartels to transport drugs to the U.S., with what the Trump administration says is the support of the Maduro regime.
Trump openly campaigned to be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize, making a contentious claim that he had stopped several wars this year. But the deadline for nominations for the 2025 prize was Jan. 31, just days into his second, non-consecutive term as president.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, from the Norwegian Nobel Institute, responding to a reporter question about Trump’s politicking for the honour, said through its history the committee has received thousands of letters advocating for specific candidates.
The committee took its final decision before a ceasefire and hostage deal under the first phase of Trump’s initiative to end the war in Gaza was announced on Wednesday. If Trump was nominated for other reasons, it would not be officially known, as the Nobel organization does not list the nominees for a particular year until 50 years later.
Organizations or governments eligible to put forth nominations are free to publicize those names.
In February, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights said its founder, Canadian Irwin Cotler, had been nominated by a group that included two liberated political prisoners, Natan Sharansky and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
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