Niklas Elmed / Nobel Prize Outreach
Maria Corina Machado
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former Venezuelan deputy and opponent María Corina Machado, who has opposed the Government for more than 20 years.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Venezuelan opponent Maria Corina Machadoformer deputy of the National Assembly of Venezuela between 2011 and 2014, and the “” who in 2024 challenged Nicolás Maduro, announced the Nobel Committee.
The opposition leader was awarded “for her tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela and for her fight to achieve a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”, explained the Nobel organization.
“As leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, María Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times”, highlighted the Committee in .
Highlighting that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded this year to a “courageous and committed defender of peace”, the Nobel Committee spokesperson explained that it was “a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning in the midst of the growing darkness.”
For the Nobel Prize organization, Maria Corina Machado has been a “key and unifying figure in a political opposition that was previously deeply divided”, demanding free elections and a representative government.
“At a time when democracy is threatened, it is more important than ever to defend” this, he added.
Born in 1967, in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the main voices of the democratic opposition to the Nicolás Maduro regime, having been candidate in the presidential elections July 2024.
However, she was prevented from running when, in January 2024, the Supreme Court of Justice declared her banned from holding public office for 15 years.
Founder of join inan organization dedicated to democratic development, Maria Corina Machado “defends free elections and fair for more than 20 years”, said the Committee, recalling a statement from the Committee itself: “It was a choice of votes instead of bullets”.
The Venezuelan opponent “has defended judicial independence, human rights and popular representation” and spent “years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people”, said the Nobel Committee.
“I’m in shock!”, Maria Machado was heard saying to Edmundo González Urrutia, who replaced her as candidate in the last presidential elections due to his political ineligibility.
“What is this? I don’t believe”, insists the 58-year-old leader of the opposition, who has already been called “”, and that lives hidden And Venezuela.
Government salutes “courage and audacity”
The Portuguese Government congratulated the leader of the Venezuelan opposition on the award of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, highlighting her “courage and audacity” in the fight for a “just and democratic peace”.
“The fight for democracy, free elections and human rights is the raw material for peace. courage and audacity of María Corina Machado they are the leaven of peace – of a just and democratic peace”, stated the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, in a publication on the social network X.
The Venezuelan opposition was awarded “for its tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela and for its struggle to achieve a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”, explained the Nobel organization.
Still in Portuguese reactions, the secretary general of the PCP today criticized the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opponent María Corina Machado, considering that “They didn’t give Trump the Nobel, they gave it to a Trumpist’”.
“Everything indicated that there was going to be a coup in which Trump would be awarded the Nobel Prize. It wasn’t Trump, it was a ‘Trumpist’. And, therefore, there isn’t much more to say about it. The Academy didn’t award a prize to Trump – which was also too much –, so it gave it to a ‘Trumpist'”, criticized Paulo Raimundo in statements to journalists during a riot in Baixa da Banheira, in the municipality of Moita.
Asked about the reasons for criticizing María Corina Machado, Raimundo said he did not want to say anything more, “because it is so obvious that the award was given to a ‘Trumpist’”, because Attributing it to Trump would be “too scandalous.””.
