María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician, has won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, the award’s committee announced Friday. Machado is a democracy advocate and opposition leader who has built a powerful social movement despite the brutal authoritarian tactics of President Nicolás Maduro.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Machado earned the honor due to “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,” calling Machado “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
The committee cited Machado’s ability to organize various opposition factions, particularly around last year’s presidential election. Volunteer poll watchers provided tallies showing the Machado-backed candidate had defeated Maduro, who refused to accept those results and is still in power.
“Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people,” the committee wrote of Machado, who now lives in hiding.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Machado earned the honor due to “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.”
Past recipients include Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of atomic bomb survivors, “for its efforts to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons” in 2024; Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994; Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho in 1973; and Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964.








