UPDATED: Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize
10452 Mins Read
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting democratic rights in her country and her struggle to achieve a transition to democracy, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” it said in its citation.
BREAKING NEWS The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPeacePrize to Maria Corina Machado 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… pic.twitter.com/Zgth8KNJk9
The committee chose to focus on Venezuela at this time, in a year dominated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ahead of the announcement, experts on the award had said Trump would not win it as he is dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards,in his 1895 will.
Maria Corina Machado said she was confident that the opposition would succeed in securing a peaceful transition to democracy in her home country of Venezuela.
“We’re not there yet. We’re working very hard to achieve it, but I’m sure that we will prevail,” she told Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Nobel Institute and secretary of the Nobel Committee, when he called to inform her that she had won the 2025 Peace Prize.
“This is certainly the biggest recognition to our people that certainly deserve it,” she said, adding: “I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this.”
White House complains Nobel Committee puts ‘politics above peace’
The White House accused the Nobel Peace Prize committee of prioritizing politics over peace by awarding the prize to a Venezuelan opposition leader instead of US President Donald Trump.
“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a post on X.
“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace,” he added.
President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives.
He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.
