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Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
The former presidential candidate was recognised as a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided — an opposition that united in its call for free elections and representative governance,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee, on Friday.
“In the past year, Miss 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. When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”
President Nicolás Maduro’s administration consistently targeted its actual or perceived adversaries leading up to last year’s presidential election.
Machado intended to challenge Maduro, but the government barred her from running. Edmundo González took her place despite never having previously campaigned for office.
The period before the election was marked by severe repression, including disqualifications, arrests, and violations of human rights.
The government’s crackdown on dissent intensified after the National Electoral Council, which consists of Maduro loyalists, announced him as the winner, despite credible evidence suggesting otherwise.
The results declared by the Electoral Council ignited protests nationwide, which the government met with force, resulting in over 20 fatalities. This also contributed to the severance of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and several foreign countries, including Argentina.
Machado has gone into hiding and has not appeared in public since January. A Venezuelan court has issued an arrest warrant for González, who relocated to Spain and received asylum.
Last year, both Machado and González were honoured with the European Union’s highest human rights accolade, the Sakharov Prize.
Leading up to the announcement, speculation about the possibility of the prize being awarded to U.S. President Donald Trump was ongoing, partly fuelled by the president himself, especially following this week’s endorsement of his ceasefire proposal in the Gaza Strip.
The previous year’s prize was awarded to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots organisation of Japanese survivors of atomic bombings, who have campaigned for decades against the use of nuclear weapons.
The peace prize is unique among the annual Nobel prizes as it is presented in Oslo, Norway.
Four of the other prizes have been presented in Stockholm, Sweden, this week — in medicine on Monday, physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, and literature on Thursday.
The announcement for the economics prize will be made on Monday.
