Who is Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado? Venezuela opposition leader ‘in shock’ after win

FILE: Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado smiles during an interview with AFP in Caracas on July 25, 2024, ahead of Sunday's presidential election. Photo by FEDERICO PARRA /AFP via Getty Images

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The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, forced to live in hiding in what has become a “brutal” state, the Nobel jury said.

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Machado, who has lived in hiding for the past year, was 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,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

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“I am in shock,” the opposition leader could be heard saying in a video sent to AFP by her press team.

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Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a “brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis,” Frydnes said.

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FILE: Venezuelan opposition presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado attend a campaign a rally in Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela on July 23, 2024. Photo by RAUL ARBOLEDA /AFP via Getty Images

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“The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country’s own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country,” he said.

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The opposition has been systematically suppressed by means of “election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment.”

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In this context, Machado has been a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided.”

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The committee hailed her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times”.

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“Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions.”

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Ahead of Venezuela’s election in 2024, Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy.

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She then backed reluctant, little-known ex-diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as her stand-in.

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Machado’s Nobel win was a surprise, her name not among those mentioned as possible laureates in the run-up to Friday’s announcement.

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Trump’s hopes for prize

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U.S. President Donald Trump had made no secret of his desire to win this year’s prize.

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Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, the U.S. leader has repeatedly insisted that he “deserves” the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts — a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated.

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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on September 23, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Michael M. Santiago /Getty Images

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But Nobel Prize experts in Oslo had insisted in the run-up to Friday’s announcement that Trump had no chance, noting that his “America First” policies run counter to the ideals of the Peace Prize as laid out in Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will creating the award.

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Frydnes insisted the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not swayed by lobbying campaigns to get the prize.

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“In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen every type of campaign, media attention,” he said.