Maria Corina Machado Awarded Nobel Peace Prize 2025
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday decided to award the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Corina Machado 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 winner announcement was made on Friday in Oslo, marking a pinnacle of Nobel Week. The prestigious award, presented by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, has drawn 338 nominations this year — including 244 individuals and 94 organisations.
The committee chose to focus on Venezuela at this time, in a year dominated by US President Donald Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
Venezuela’s opposition leader, Machado, was lauded for being a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee.
The official announcement was delivered by Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, at the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of five members: human rights advocate Jørgen Watne Frydnes, foreign policy scholar Asle Toje, former Acting Prime Minister Anne Enger, former Minister of Education Kristin Clemet, and former Secretary of Foreign Affairs Gry Larsen.
