María Corina Machado has served as the main opposition leader since winning the primary of the Democratic Unitary Platform in October 2023. Photo: Guacamaya.
Guacamaya, October 10, 2025. The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to opposition leader María Corina Machado for “her tireless work promoting the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
During the announcement, the Norwegian Nobel Committee stated that Machado had helped “keep the flame of democracy burning in the face of growing darkness.”
This would be the first Nobel Peace Prize received by a Venezuelan woman, and the second time a compatriot has been honored by the Committee. In 1980, Baruj Benacerraf received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
It is common for this prize to be awarded to democracy and human rights activists. In 1991, it was received by Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi, and in 2021 by the Filipino Maria Ressa and the Russian Dmitry Muratov.
Machado has been a leader of the Venezuelan opposition since the early years of Hugo Chávez’s presidency. In October 2023, she won the primary of the main electoral coalition, the Democratic Unitary Platform. Being disqualified by the government of Nicolás Maduro, she chose to support a substitute candidate in the presidential elections of July 28, 2024.
In these elections, she managed to articulate a national campaign to centralize the records from each voting station, thereby demonstrating the final results.
However, she has also called for military intervention in Venezuela. Between 2018 and 2020, she tried to have the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (TIAR) invoked, so that governments in the region, primarily the United States, would enter Venezuela to overthrow Maduro. This year, she has shown her support for the alleged U.S. campaign against “narco-terrorism” in the Caribbean, which has already resulted in extrajudicial killings on the high seas.
Other Nominations
Undoubtedly, the most well-known and controversial nomination was that of US President Donald Trump. A few days before the Committee’s decision, he announced a peace agreement for Gaza. Slightly less commented upon was the inclusion of tech magnate Elon Musk.
There were several nominees from Palestine, including a posthumous one for Hind Rajab, a girl killed by Israeli forces in Gaza in January 2024. Also nominated were the scientist and activist Mazin Qumsiyeh, and Issa Amro, who was named alongside the Israeli-American Jeff Halper.
Organizations were also nominated, this time including the Children of Gaza group, the International Criminal Court, the U.S. Congressional committee investigating the events of January 6, 2021, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms.
