The leader of the Venezuelan opposition, María Corina Machado, is the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize “for her tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”, announced the Nobel Committee, based in Oslo, this Friday (10).
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to “a courageous and committed defender of peace, to a woman who keeps the flame of democracy alive amid growing darkness,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian committee during the award speech.
Machado demonstrated that the tools of democracy are also those of peace, the committee emphasized, adding that the laureate embodies hope for a different future, in which citizens’ fundamental rights are protected and their voices are heard.
As leader of the democratic movement in Venezuela, Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civic courage in Latin America in recent times, emphasized the organization of the renowned award.
The awardee has been a key, unifying figure in a once deeply divided political opposition, an opposition that has found common ground in demanding free elections and representative government, he added.
The Nobel Committee hopes the Venezuelan opposition leader can travel to Oslo within two months to receive the Peace Prize, although it has stressed that it is too early to say and that a “serious” security issue needs to be resolved first.
“It’s too early to say. We always hope to have the guests with us in Oslo, but there is a serious security situation that needs to be resolved first,” said the head of the Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, at the press conference following the award announcement.
Asked about the possible impact of the award on the situation of Machado, who lives in Venezuela, Frydnes expressed confidence that it would serve to advance his cause.
“It is one of the most difficult dilemmas that the committee discusses annually with all the candidates, especially when the recipient lives in hiding due to serious threats to her life. She is very active in Venezuela, has been and will continue to be. We believe that this award will support her cause, not limit it”, he stated.
Edmundo González says the award recognizes the fight for democracy in Venezuela
Former presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia said this Friday that the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to his fellow Venezuelan oppositionist María Corina Machado is a recognition of the “struggle of a woman and an entire people” for “freedom and democracy” in Venezuela.
“Our dear Maria Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize! Deserved recognition of the long struggle of a woman and an entire people for our freedom and democracy. The first winner of the Nobel Prize from Venezuela! Congratulations @mariacorinaya, Venezuela will be free!” wrote González on his X account.
The message on X from González, Nicolás Maduro’s rival in the 2024 presidential elections and exiled in Madrid, is accompanied by a 15-second video in which he is seen talking on his cell phone to a woman, apparently Machado, who can be heard saying “I’m in shock” and “I don’t believe it.”
Machado will participate in a conference in Barcelona this month
The leader of the opposition in Venezuela, María Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize this Friday, will participate in the second edition of the World in Progress (WIP) forum, which will be held in Spain on October 20.
In Barcelona, Machado will participate in a round table entitled “Venezuela and Democratic Horizons”, alongside the former president of the Inter-American Dialogue, Michael Shifter, and moderated by journalist Pablo Tallón, according to the initial program of the event, organized by the Group Spanish Prisa.
In the second edition of WIP, Machado will be accompanied by another Nobel Peace Prize winner, former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, who will give a lecture on the same day, the 20th, alongside Jan Martínez Ahrens, director of the newspaper The Countryon “The Existential Challenges of the Planet”.
