Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long struggle to restore democracy and uphold human rights in Venezuela.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday that Machado was chosen “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.”
Machado, one of the most prominent voices of the Venezuelan opposition, has faced imprisonment, disqualification from public office, and repeated threats from President Nicolás Maduro’s government.
BREAKING NEWS
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
Despite these pressures, she has continued to mobilise international support for Venezuela’s pro-democracy movement and advocate nonviolent resistance.
The award, which includes a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million), marks a symbolic victory for Venezuela’s embattled democratic movement and a pointed rebuke to authoritarian rule in the region.
The announcement, however, dealt a blow to US President Donald Trump, who had openly lobbied for the honour, claiming credit for resolving “eight wars,” including his administration’s recent efforts to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Trump’s allies had mounted a public campaign in recent days, arguing he was the rightful recipient.
Trump’s campaign to win the Nobel Peace Prize
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump’s campaign to influence the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) — the body that advises on the Nobel selection process — has been unusually direct.
With just hours remaining before this year’s laureate was announced, the effort had entered overdrive.
The diplomatic push coincides with Thursday’s news of a landmark peace agreement between Israel and Hamas — a deal that could end the war in Gaza.
Trump’s allies quickly seized on the development, taking to cable networks to argue that the president deserves the global honour he has long sought.
“Everybody has been talking about: ‘Will he get the Nobel Peace Prize?’” said Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.) on Fox News.
“Those academics and elites sitting in Norway — that board of people that decide it — they need to give President Trump the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Mast added, “I’m not certain that the board in Norway believes in peace through strength. They believe in peace through pandering.”
While publicly tempering expectations, Trump has been privately active in lobbying.
Over the summer, he reportedly called Jens Stoltenberg — Norway’s finance minister — to discuss “the Nobel Peace Prize … and tariffs.”
The president has also made frequent references to the award, often claiming credit for ending “six or seven wars” since returning to office.
“If I were named Obama, I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds,” Trump said last year on the campaign trail.
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