Political leader was awarded for her work for democracy in Venezuela, opposing Nicolás Maduro
DANIELA ARCANJO
SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS) – The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced this Friday (10) that the opposition leader of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship, María Corina Machado, 58, won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for democracy in Venezuela.
The award was awarded for his “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for his effort to achieve a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”, according to the announcement.
“I’m in shock!” María Corina told the Venezuelan opposition candidate for President in 2024, Edmundo González Urrutia, in a video shared with the AFP news agency. “We are in shock of joy”, responds the diplomat, who went into exile almost a year ago after replacing María Corina, banned from running by the regime. “What is this? I don’t believe it”, insists the leader, who is hiding in Venezuela.
With the prize, she became the 20th woman to win the Nobel, awarded since 1901 – which means that, now, 83% of the winners were male. The last woman to win the honor was Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, in 2023.
The committee characterized María Corina as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times” and a “key, unifying figure in a previously deeply divided political opposition.”
“This is precisely what is at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular government, even when we disagree. At a time when democracy is threatened, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground,” the ad says.
The committee’s president, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, also cited the opposition’s “innovative and courageous, peaceful and democratic” efforts in the 2024 elections in Venezuela, when anti-Chavism gathered voting records throughout the day in an attempt to contest possible fraud by the regime.
Although the documents, certified by different independent bodies, indicated victory for the opposition candidate, Edmundo González, Maduro declared his third re-election hours after the polls closed, without presenting the evidence required by Venezuelan law.
The episode was just one of the abnormalities in the election. About a year earlier, María Corina had been declared ineligible alongside other opponents by the country’s General Comptroller’s Office – which, like most public bodies in Venezuela, is equipped.
At the time, the regime attributed the decision to administrative irregularities at the time she was deputy, from 2011 to 2014. The measure, imposed in 2015, was valid for just one year, but was extended because she supported US sanctions against Maduro, according to the organization.
“The opposition received international support when its leaders released vote counts collected in the country’s electoral districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin. But the regime refused to accept the election results and clung to power,” the committee said on Friday.
The award also seemed to be a way to shed light on the advance of authoritarianism in different parts of the world in recent years.
“We live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes defy norms and resort to violence,” the committee said. “We see the same trends globally: rule of law violated by those who control it, free press silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed into authoritarian rule and militarization. In 2024, more elections have been held than ever before, but fewer and fewer elections are free and fair.”
Asked about the significance of the award amid this setback, Frydnes stated that “living in a world where there is less democracy and more authoritarian regimes means that the world is also becoming less safe”.
“We believe that democracy is a precondition for peace. So yes, this is a message to the world,” he added.
The committee’s decision frustrated American President Donald Trump, for whom the award had become a personal goal and a constant presence in his speeches, in which he openly campaigned to be awarded.
Trump said he deserved the award with the argument that he had ended “six or seven” wars around the world since he returned to the White House – although the Republican participated in negotiations in a series of conflicts, not all of them he listed ended or had his role as a determining factor.
Also asked about the Republican’s efforts, Frydnes said that, throughout history, there have been “all kinds of campaigns”. “This committee sits in a room filled with portraits of all the laureates, and this room is full of courage and integrity. Our decision is based solely on the work and desire of Alfred Nobel,” he said, referring to the Swedish inventor (1833-1896) who conceived the prize.
Trump’s pro-Nobel campaign had been boosted on Wednesday (8) with the announcement, made by the American on his social media, that Israel and Hamas agreed to the first phase of a peace plan for Gaza, with the release of hostages by the terrorist group and military withdrawal from Tel Aviv. This Thursday (9), the Israeli government approved an agreement to end the conflict.
In total, 338 candidates had been nominated for the award this year, of which 244 were individuals and 94 organizations. The number is lower than last year, when there were 286 nominations, and 2016, when there were a record 376 names.
More curiosities about the list of nominees, however, can only be resolved in 50 years. The candidates and those who nominated them – which involve, among others, country leaders and those who may have been laureates – remain confidential for five decades.
The Nobel Prize was first awarded in 1901. Initially, there were five categories: peace, literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. A sixth “economy” was added decades later, in 1969.
Until the mid-20th century, laureates in the top category were “active politicians who sought to promote international peace, stability and justice through diplomacy and international agreements.”
Since the end of World War II, however, the award began to recognize efforts in the areas of disarmament, democracy and human rights. At the turn of the 21st century, the focus was broadened to include initiatives that attempt to curb the human-caused climate crisis.
For some years now, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been receiving criticism due to his choices. In 2017, pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi, laureate in 1991, was criticized for her silence in relation to the humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, who became targets of the country’s army and were forced to flee — around 1 million of them live in Cox’s Bazar, in Bangladesh, the largest refugee camp in the world.
In 2019, the laureate was the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, awarded for ending the war with Eritrea – a year later, however, he led another confrontation in the north of the country. Recently, Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, winner of the award in 1996, was accused of sexually abusing teenagers.
REMEMBER THE TEN PREVIOUS NOBEL PEACE WINNERS
– 2024: The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, which works for the abolition of nuclear weapons and brings together survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs
– 2023: Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, 51, for supporting women’s fight for the right to live full and dignified lives
– 2022: Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, Russian human rights group Memorial, and Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties for demonstrating the importance of civil society for peace and democracy
– 2021: Journalists Maria Ressa (Filipino) and Dmitri Muratov (Russian), for their defense of freedom of expression, a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace
– 2020: World Food Program (WFP), for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict
– 2019: Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a peace agreement that ended two decades of hostilities with Eritrea
– 2018: Congolese Denis Mukwege and Iraqi Nadia Murad, who denounced violence towards victims of sexual violence as a weapon of war
– 2017: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Ican), for drawing attention to the risk of nuclear weapons
– 2016: Juan Manuel Santos, former president of Colombia who negotiated the peace agreement with the FARC
– 2015: Quartet for the National Dialogue of Tunisia, for the decisive contribution to the construction of a plural society in the country
2024: The Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, which works for the abolition of nuclear weapons and brings together survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs
2023: Iranian human rights activist Narges Mohammadi, 51, for supporting women’s fight for the right to live full and dignified lives
2022: Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, Russian human rights group Memorial, and Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties for demonstrating the importance of civil society for peace and democracy
2021: Journalists Maria Ressa (Filipino) and Dmitri Muratov (Russian), for their defense of freedom of expression, a prerequisite for democracy and lasting peace
