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Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado is the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize “for her tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” announced the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo on Friday, October 10, 2025.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to “a courageous and committed defender of peace, a woman who keeps the flame of democracy alive amid growing darkness,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, during the announcement of the decision.
María Corina Machado has shown that “the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace,” the committee emphasized, adding that the laureate “embodies the hope for a different future, in which citizens’ fundamental rights are protected and their voices heard.”
As the leader of Venezuela’s democratic movement, Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Latin America in recent times, the committee highlighted.
The laureate has been a key and unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided, an opposition that found common ground in demanding free elections and a representative government, the committee added.
“Recognition for our people”
María Corina Machado described winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize as an “achievement” and a “recognition” for the entire Venezuelan people.
“This is an achievement for all of society, I am just one person, I don’t deserve it,” Machado said in a phone conversation shared by the Nobel Foundation, calling the award “the greatest recognition for our people.”
Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, called Machado minutes before the announcement, and she repeatedly said, “Oh my God!” and, her voice breaking, added, “I have no words.”
“I feel honored, overwhelmed, and very grateful on behalf of the people of Venezuela,” Machado said.
In a video just over four minutes long, Harpviken asked Machado to wait five minutes before sharing the news publicly, until the official announcement was made.
“I think it’s going to take me much longer to believe what I just heard,” Machado replied, referring to her surprise at winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
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María Corina Machado, a symbol of resistance
María Corina Machado is a symbol of resistance against Chavismo and one of the most critical voices against the Venezuelan government. She is also critical of some opposition parties she believes have capitulated to the regime. Her party, Vente Venezuela, for example, is not part of the Plataforma Unitaria coalition that has engaged in dialogues with the Chavista government.
With an anti-communist platform that has helped her gain many followers among the Venezuelan diaspora, she promotes what she calls “popular capitalism,” advocating, among other things, respect for private property, a reduced bureaucratic apparatus, and minimal state intervention in the economy.
In 2024, she received the Václav Havel Prize from the Council of Europe for “denouncing human rights abuses in her country and defending democracy.” Her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the award on her behalf, as Machado remains in hiding after denouncing electoral fraud in the July 28, 2024, presidential elections.
That same year, Venezuela’s democratic opposition, represented by Edmundo González Urrutia and Machado, won the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded annually by the European Parliament for exceptional contributions to human rights.
Machado was born in Caracas on October 7, 1967. Her father, Henrique Machado, was a prominent entrepreneur in the metallurgical sector, and the family’s businesses were expropriated under the Chavista administration.
María Corina Machado holds a degree in industrial engineering from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello and a diploma in finance from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración. She also served as a professor in the university’s industrial engineering school.
She has played a prominent role in Venezuelan civil society organizations. Alongside her mother, she co-founded the Fundación Atenea, which works to reintegrate at-risk children, and Oportuninas, which she led from 1998 to 2002, providing assistance to children from families in extreme poverty.
In 2002, she co-founded Súmate, an organization dedicated to defending citizens’ political rights.
Her Life as an Opposition Leader
As an opponent of Chávez, Machado met with then-U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House in 2005, which drew sharp criticism from the Venezuelan government, accusing her of being at the service of the CIA.
In February 2010, she resigned as president of Súmate to run in the September elections, winning a seat in the National Assembly representing Miranda state with the highest number of votes.
In 2011, she ran in the opposition primaries of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática (MUD) against Henrique Capriles, losing the nomination in 2012. That same year, she founded the center-liberal party Vente Venezuela.
During her time in office, she became known for her strong opposition to Hugo Chávez, famously declaring in 2012, “Expropriating is stealing,” interrupting one of his speeches.
In February 2014, she led, alongside Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, a campaign called “La Salida,” which called for protests aimed at ousting Maduro, who had just taken office after Chávez’s death.
In March 2014, she was removed from her parliamentary seat after then-Speaker Diosdado Cabello accused her of violating the Constitution by accepting a role as Panama’s alternate representative to the Organization of American States (OAS).
That same year, she was charged with public incitement over violent events during February’s anti-government protests, barred from leaving the country, and accused of “conspiracy” in an alleged plot to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro.
Chavismo Bars Her from Public Office
In 2015, Venezuela’s Comptroller General barred Machado from holding any public office for one year, citing her failure to include certain labor-related items in her sworn asset declaration. As a result, she could not run for deputy that year.
In 2022, she confirmed her participation in the anti-Chavista primary elections scheduled for October 2023. She registered her candidacy in June 2023, but a week later the Comptroller General extended her previous 2015 disqualification to 15 years—until 2030—a decision condemned by both her electoral rivals and international actors, including the OAS, the U.S., and the EU.
Machado maintained her candidacy and won the October 22 primaries with 92.3% of the vote, although the Supreme Court declared the vote “suspended” a week later.
On November 30, 2023, the Venezuelan government opened a process to allow anti-Chavistas to be reinstated, and in December Machado requested a review of her case by the Supreme Court. However, on January 26, 2024, the high court upheld her 15-year disqualification.
Machado ceded her spot to historian Corina Yoris, who was unable to register her candidacy due to electoral authority restrictions. The main anti-Chavista coalition, Plataforma Unitaria Democrática, provisionally put forward diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, who was ultimately confirmed as the presidential candidate for the July 28 elections on April 19, with Machado’s support.
*With information from EFE.
