Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.uz) — The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Venezuelan political activist María Corina Machado, the Nobel Committee announced on Friday.
The Committee stated that the prize recognizes Machado “for her tireless efforts to promote the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle for a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
In the official statement, the Committee emphasized: “María Corina Machado is a courageous and devoted champion of peace, keeping the flame of democracy alive amid deepening darkness. She stands as a key unifying figure within Venezuela’s political opposition, capable of building common ground in the pursuit of free elections and representative governance.”
Machado served as a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly from 2011 to 2014. In 2012, she participated in the opposition’s presidential primary elections but did not win.
In 2014, she led mass protest movements against the government of President Nicolás Maduro. In January 2024, Venezuela’s Supreme Court barred her from running for public office for 15 years. Following the 2024 presidential elections — officially declared in favor of Maduro — Machado was forced to go into hiding at an undisclosed location.
The Nobel Committee described her as “one of the most remarkable examples of civic courage in Latin America in recent years.”
