Who Is Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize Winner?

Venezuelan opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, widely known as the country’s “Libertadora,” has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her relentless fight for democratic rights in a nation now described as a “brutal authoritarian state.”

Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, emphasized that Machado was honored “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.”

Despite living in hiding for the past year amid threats to her life, Machado has remained in the country, inspiring millions by demonstrating extraordinary civilian courage.

The committee described her as a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided,” underscoring her role in bringing cohesion to Venezuela’s fractured democratic movement.

Machado’s political career spans over two decades, beginning in 2002 with the civic association Sumate, where she led a campaign to recall Hugo Chávez’s successor Maduro, a move that exposed her to accusations of treason, death threats, and the temporary exile of her three children.

She also served as the opposition’s 2024 presidential candidate, though her candidacy was blocked by Maduro’s government, prompting her to support the relatively unknown ex-diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia as her stand-in during the campaign.

Her work has already been internationally recognized, including the European Union’s Sakharov Prize and the Council of Europe’s Vaclav Havel Prize in 2024.

The award arrives amid heightened U.S. pressure on Maduro, including military operations in Venezuelan waters targeting alleged drug traffickers, a strategy that Machado and Gonzalez Urrutia have publicly supported as a means to restore Venezuela’s sovereignty.

Machado’s win is a significant counterpoint to speculation about U.S. President Donald Trump, who had openly expressed interest in receiving the prize, though the committee reaffirmed that Nobel decisions are guided solely by Alfred Nobel’s vision and not by lobbying or media campaigns.