Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado wins 2025 Nobel Peace prize

The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Venezuela’s opposition leader and democracy activist, Maria Corina Machado, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday.

Machado 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, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in Oslo.

Describing her as a “key, unifying figure in a once deeply divided opposition,” Frydnes said Machado has shown remarkable resilience in an authoritarian state facing severe humanitarian and economic crises.

The committee praised her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times,” noting that she has been forced into hiding over the past year. “Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, who has openly expressed his wish to win the award, did not make the shortlist. Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, Trump has repeatedly claimed he “deserves” the Nobel for his efforts in conflict resolution — a claim experts in Oslo described as exaggerated. Analysts noted that his “America First” policies contradict the ideals of the Peace Prize as established in Alfred Nobel’s 1895 will.

Last year’s Peace Prize went to Japan’s Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots anti-nuclear group of Hiroshima and Nagasaki bomb survivors.

The Nobel Peace Prize includes a gold medal, a diploma, and a cash award of $1.2 million. It will be presented at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10 — the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

On Thursday, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Hungarian author Laszlo Krasznahorkai, known for his postmodern explorations of dystopia and melancholy. The 2025 Nobel season will conclude on Monday with the announcement of the economics prize.