The Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, in recognition of his defense of democracy against authoritarianism in Venezuela. The Norwegian Committee highlighted its role in promoting free elections and building a citizen movement that seeks to restore fundamental rights and freedoms in its country.
The Committee added that as leader of the democratic movement in Venezuela, María Corina Machado represents one of the most notable examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times.
Machado has been a key and unifying figure within an opposition that for years was fragmented, but that found a common point in the demand for free elections and a truly representative government. In this lies the very essence of democracy: the shared will to defend the principles of popular power even in the midst of differences.
Venezuela has gone from being a prosperous and democratic nation to an authoritarian and impoverished state, today mired in a deep humanitarian and economic crisis. The majority of citizens live in conditions of extreme poverty, while an elite concentrates power and wealth. State repression is exercised against the population itself, and almost eight million Venezuelans have left the country. The political opposition has been systematically persecuted through electoral fraud, prosecution and imprisonment.
In this hostile environment, political commitment becomes an act of courage. Since founding Súmate more than two decades ago, an organization dedicated to promoting free and fair elections, Machado has defended human rights, judicial independence and popular representation. As she herself stated then, “it was about choosing between votes and bullets.” His career has been marked by the conviction that freedom must be achieved through peaceful and democratic means.
Before the 2024 elections, Machado was named the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her participation. Instead of giving up, he supported the candidate Edmundo González Urrutia and promoted an unprecedented civic mobilization. Thousands of volunteers organized themselves as electoral observers, determined to safeguard the transparency of the elections despite the risk of harassment, detention or torture. Their work allowed actual results to be documented before the regime manipulated data and destroyed evidence.
Despite the repression, the Venezuelan opposition demonstrated that peaceful resistance is still possible. The independent vote count confirmed the opposition’s victory, although the regime refused to recognize it.
Venezuela’s history is also a reminder of a global trend: the decline of democracy and the advance of authoritarianism. Around the world, the rule of law is violated by those in power; the free press is silenced; critics are imprisoned and societies are pushed towards repression and militarization. In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer were truly free and fair.
Throughout its history, The Norwegian Nobel Committee has recognized men and women who, in the face of repression, kept the hope of freedom alive. Machado is part of that tradition. In the last year, she has been forced to remain underground, but has decided to remain in her country, despite threats against her life. That determination has inspired millions of Venezuelans.
When authoritarian regimes consolidate their power, it becomes essential to recognize those who rise up to defend freedom. Democracy depends on the voices that refuse to be silent, on those who take the risk and remind us that freedom is never a guaranteed fact, but a cause that must be protected with words, with courage and with conviction.
María Corina Machado complies with the three principles established in Alfred Nobel’s will for the Peace Prize: He has united his country’s opposition, resisted the militarization of civilian life, and relentlessly advocated for a peaceful transition to democracy.
Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also tools of peace. His example embodies the hope for a different future: one in which fundamental rights are protected and the citizen voice is heard again. A future in which people can finally live in freedom and peace, the Committee added.
Before the announcement, experts on the award had said that President Donald Trump would not win it, given the perception that it is dismantling the international world order that the Nobel committee values.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, about US$1.2 million, will be awarded in Oslo on December 10, anniversary of the death of the Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, founder of the awards in his 1895 will.
