Venezuelan opposition leader and democracy advocate, María Corina Machado, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday.
Machado was honoured “for her tireless work in promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Nobel Committee, during the announcement in Oslo.
Before venturing into politics, Machado studied engineering and finance, and briefly worked in business before founding an organisation dedicated to supporting street children in Caracas.
According to the Committee, Machado “meets all three criteria outlined in Alfred Nobel’s will for the selection of a Peace Prize laureate.”
It added, “She has united her country’s opposition, consistently opposed the militarisation of Venezuelan society, and remained steadfast in her commitment to a peaceful transition to democracy.”
This year’s Peace Prize comes amid ongoing political repression and economic hardship in Venezuela, where Machado has been one of the most prominent voices pushing for free elections and civil liberties despite state persecution and multiple arrests of opposition figures.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize announcement is part of Nobel Week, which runs from October 6 to 13, celebrating achievements in medicine, physics, chemistry, literature, and peace.
A total of 338 nominations were received for this year’s Peace Prize — 244 individuals and 94 organisations.
The Nobel Prizes were established through the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896. The Prize in Economic Sciences was later added by the Swedish Central Bank in 1968 to honour contributions to the field of economics.
