The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo announced Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for her advocacy of democratic rights amid authoritarian repression in Venezuela on Thursday.
It revealed: “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 democracy.
“In the past year, #NobelPeacePrize laureate Maria Corina Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions of people.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.
“Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence.
“Maria Corina Machado – awarded the 2025 #NobelPeacePrize – has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people. The Venezuelan regime’s rigid hold on power and its repression of the population are not unique in the world. We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarisation.
The Committee described Machado as a “key, unifying figure” against a “brutal” Venezuelan state.
“Ms Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government. This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree.
“At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground. Venezuela’s authoritarian regime makes political work extremely difficult.
“As a founder of Súmate, an organisation devoted to democratic development, Ms Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago. As she said: “It was a choice of ballots over bullets.” In political office and in her service to organisations since then, Ms Machado has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights and popular representation. She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.”
Machado, who has endured bans, threats, and exile attempts, mobilized citizens against repression, with the committee citing her work as embodying democracy’s role in peace from 338 nominations.
The announcement came hours after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire and hostage release deal, but the agreement came too late for the Nobel Committee to take it into account and for US President Donald Trump to have any chance to win the award he desperately wants.
Last year, the honour went to Nihon Hidankyo, a group of survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings campaigning against nuclear weapons.
The Nobel Peace Prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1.2 million cheque.
After the Nobel prizes awarded this week for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace, the economics prize on Monday wraps up the 2025 Nobel season.
