Maria Corina Machado: Why the Venezuelan politician is 2025’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate

The coveted Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 went to someone who is deserving of the honour this year: Venezuelan opposition politician Maria Corina Machado.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute said that she was given the prize “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”. For over a decade, she has been leading the struggle for democracy in the authoritarian country.
The 58-year-old is the founder of the Vente Venezuela (Come Venezuela), a centrist liberal party.
In 2002, Machado co-founded the Sumate (Spanish for Join Up ), a volunteer civil association that aims to promote free exercise of the citizens' political rights and works as an election monitoring group.
Last year, she was banned from running for elections, which were won by President Nicolas Maduro. After she was banned, she supported the opposition's alternate candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia. When the opposition in the country mobilised and collected evidence the they won the election the regime held onto the power.
Venezuelans live in poverty, and about 8 million have moved abroad to escape the humanitarian crisis in the authoritarian state. The regime has held onto power by election rigging, legal prosecution, and imprisonment.
Since Maduro’s win, she had to remain in hiding within the country. According to the Nobel Committee, “In the past year, Ms Machado has been forced to live in hiding despite serious threats against her life,” the committee added. “She has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions.”
The committee said that it was important to recognise “courageous defenders of freedom.”
It is not the first time she has been a target of the regime governing the country. In 2014, the regime had her expelled from office as her position as an elected member of the parliament after she spoke about he violations of the Maduro regime.
In 2017, she founded the Soy Venezuela alliance, uniting pro-democracy forces in the country across political lines. For Venezuelans, she is a true champion of democracy.
After Machado was contacted to be informed of the award, the Nobel committee reported her as saying, “This is an award for an entire movement.”
World