Maria Corina Machado has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in “promoting peace” in Latin America at a time when “democracy is under threat”.
The 58-year-old industrial engineer was declared the winner in an announcement made by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo on Friday.
The Venezuelan opposition leader was awarded for "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 politician is currently in hiding due to serious threats to her life.
While her family fled the country after the threats, Ms Machado chose to remain in exile within Venezuela, a point noted by the Committee in its speech.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” it continued.
In January this year, Ms Machado was “violently intercepted” amid gunshots as she was leaving a protest in eastern Caracas. She was detained after making her first public appearance in months.
The politician and activist dedicated her win to President Donald Trump “for his decisive support of our cause” and to the “suffering people of Venezuela”.
“This recognition of the struggle of all Venezuelans is a boost to conclude our task: to conquer Freedom,” she wrote in a post on X/Twitter on Friday.
“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy.”
Born in Caracas in 1967, the mother-of-three set up a foundation for orphaned children living on the streets of her city called Fundación Atenea. She was subsequently forced to leave her role when she co-founded Súmate, which marked her official entry into politics.
Ms Machado then went on to found the liberal political party Vente Venezuela, for which she become the National Coordinator. From 2011 to 2014, she served as a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela.
The news will come as a disappointment to President Donald Trump. The American leader has been engaged in peacemaking efforts – with one eye on the accolade – ever since he returned to office in January this year. In the past 24 hours, he shared several articles on Truth Social claiming he should win the award for securing a peace deal between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.
Since his return to office, he has claimed to have stopped “seven wars” including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which remains ongoing.
Trump is eager to be recognised for his efforts to end the wars America has been involved in around the world.
Declaring his 20-point plan for Gaza alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he announced the document would end “thousands of years” of conflict and that it was a “big, big day, a beautiful day”, and “potentially one of the greatest days ever in civilisation”.
He has been open about his frustrations with his allies’ reluctance to cooperate, hitting out at Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “paper tiger” and saying Netanyahu was “f**king me” and being “so negative” with attacks on Qatar and further delays to a ceasefire.
However, he has had his supporters around the globe including the Hostages and Missing Families Forum who said the President should win for having brought them “light in our darkest times”.
Pakistan also nominated Mr Trump for his involvement in the de-escalation of the conflict Pakistan and India earlier this year.
His efforts have been lauded as “historic” by some commentators with no previous leader having launched an initiative for Israeli-Palestinian talks on such a scale and forging a formidable coalition of nations to work towards it.
Trump has previously said about the Prize: “I should have gotten it four or five times.”
Ms Machado has previously thanked Mr Trump for targeting drug lords.
“We Venezuelans are immensely grateful to President Trump for his decisive and courageous action in dismantling the criminal enterprise that has seized our nation,” she wrote. The US leader has also expressed his support for Ms Machado’s work in return.
“I think it’s amazing, she’s an incredible woman,” Adriana, a Venezuelan business graduate living in London, told The Independent.
“She’s always aimed for peaceful measures. She has always called for peaceful movements. She was running for the elections then the government made her ineligible for some silly reason. She organised witnesses to get proof of the votes in the thousands of tables across the country and that’s how she knew Edmundo Gonzalez won the election.”
The results of the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election were disputed and sparked a political crisis in the country.
In March 2025, the Nobel Committee announced that 338 candidates had been nominated for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, of which 244 are individuals and 94 are organizations.
The winner is awarded $1.2 million, (£902,000) which will be presented at a ceremony on 10 December on the anniversary of the death of the Swedish industrialist.
Previous Prize holders include activist Mother Theresa, South African leader Nelson Mandela, and US politician Henry Kissinger.
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