A former industrial engineer, María Corina Machado has been a leading figure in Venezuela’s struggle for democracy and human rights for more than two decades.
Published Oct 10, 2025 | 4:13 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 10, 2025 | 4:13 PM
María Corina Machado (left), Donald Trump
Synopsis: Venezuelan democracy advocate María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work “uniting the country’s divided opposition and advocating free elections, the rule of law and a peaceful democratic transition”. The announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday ends weeks of speculation and a high-profile campaign by US President Donald Trump to claim the prize for himself.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday, October 10, ending weeks of speculation that the coveted honour might go to US President Donald Trump.
The committee, in a statement issued on Friday, said Machado was chosen 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 announcement followed an unusually politicised lead-up, dominated by an increasingly public campaign by Trump to claim the award for himself. He argued that he had “ended seven wars” since taking office earlier this year, including conflicts between countries that were not even at war, and repeatedly told world leaders that he “should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”
In the hours leading up to the announcement, The Guardian reported that Norwegian politicians were “bracing for potential repercussions” if Trump was not awarded the prize.
A former industrial engineer, María Corina Machado has been a leading figure in Venezuela’s struggle for democracy and human rights for more than two decades. In 2010, she was elected to the country’s National Assembly with the highest number of votes and served until she was controversially expelled four years later.
She has been a prominent opponent of the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, who have ruled the country since 1999. She has also been a frequent target of violence and persecution.
Ahead of Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, Machado emerged as the leading opposition candidate but was barred from contesting by the regime. She subsequently threw her support behind diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia.
Announcing the award in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee described María Corina Machado as “a brave and committed champion of peace, a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
The committee said she was being recognised for her leadership in uniting Venezuela’s deeply divided opposition and for her decades-long advocacy of free elections, human rights, and the rule of law.
“This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree,” the statement said.
Since first assuming the US presidency in 2017, Donald Trump has made little secret of his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in September of this year, Trump declared, “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize. I ended seven wars. No president or prime minister has ever done anything close to that.”
Trump also personally lobbied senior Norwegian officials, including Finance Minister and former NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, regarding the award, according to according to Al Jazeera.
Several leaders of US-allied countries, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, and the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, have reportedly nominated him.
Trump also controversially claimed to have brokered or ended conflicts involving Cambodia and Thailand, Kosovo and Serbia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Pakistan and India, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, and Armenia and Azerbaijan.
He said he “deserved” the prize for helping achieve a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas under what he described as his 20-point peace plan.
(Edited by Dese Gowda)
