Not Donald Trump; Maria Corina Machado Wins Peace Nobel 2025

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado for her tireless struggle to promote democratic rights and lead a peaceful movement for change in her country.

Machado has been honoured 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 committee said in its announcement on Friday. Her recognition comes at a time when Venezuela remains gripped by authoritarian rule, deep poverty, and political persecution.

As the leader of the Venezuelan democracy movement, Machado has emerged as one of Latin America’s most courageous civilian figures in recent times. She has played a key role in uniting a once-divided opposition under a shared demand for free elections, human rights, and representative government — principles that, the committee noted, form the very heart of democracy.

Over the past two decades, Venezuela has transformed from a relatively democratic and prosperous nation into an authoritarian state plagued by humanitarian and economic collapse. Nearly eight million citizens have fled the country amid worsening repression, election rigging, and widespread poverty. Despite facing relentless persecution, Machado has continued to advocate non-violent resistance and institutional reform.

A longtime champion of electoral transparency, Machado co-founded Súmate, an organisation dedicated to promoting free and fair elections, more than twenty years ago. “It was a choice of ballots over bullets,” she famously said — a phrase that came to define her political journey. Through her work in public office and civil society, she has consistently defended judicial independence, human rights, and popular representation.

In 2024, Machado was chosen as the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime barred her from contesting. Instead of retreating, she threw her support behind fellow opposition figure Edmundo González Urrutia, helping mobilise hundreds of thousands of volunteers across Venezuela. These citizens risked harassment and imprisonment as they trained as election observers, safeguarded polling stations, and documented vote counts to prevent electoral fraud.

When the opposition’s tallied results showed a clear victory — which the regime refused to recognise — Machado and her allies publicised the evidence internationally, gaining widespread support. The committee called these efforts “innovative, brave, peaceful and democratic,” a rare show of unity and moral defiance in a nation struggling for freedom.

“The opposition received international support when its leaders publicised the vote counts showing that they had won by a clear margin. But the regime refused to accept the election result and clung to power,” the committee said.

Citing global trends of democratic decline, the Nobel Committee noted that Venezuela’s situation reflects a broader crisis: authoritarian governments tightening control, silencing media, imprisoning critics, and eroding rule of law. “In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer are free and fair,” it observed.

Machado’s courage, the committee said, places her among past Nobel laureates who resisted repression through peaceful means. Forced into hiding in recent months, she has continued to live in Venezuela despite threats to her life — a choice that has inspired millions.

“Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk,” the committee stated. “Maria Corina Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace.”

The Nobel Committee concluded that Machado meets all three criteria laid out in Alfred Nobel’s will: she has unified her country’s opposition, resisted militarisation, and steadfastly pursued a peaceful transition to democracy.

“Maria Corina Machado embodies the hope of a different future — one where citizens’ rights are protected, their voices are heard, and their freedom is restored,” the committee said. “In that future, the people of Venezuela will finally be free to live in peace.”

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