- María Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting democracy and peace in Venezuela
- The Venezuelan politician and engineer pipped US President Donald Trump to win the prized honour this year
- She was blocked from 2024 Venezuelan presidential race but led efforts for transparent election monitoring
The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to Venezuelan politician and engineer María Corina Machado. She pipped US President Donald Trump to win the prized honour this year. Trump had been actively lobbying for the award for himself in recent months.
In a press release, the Nobel committee said, "María Corina Machado is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize 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."
BREAKING NEWS
October 10, 2025
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… pic.twitter.com/Zgth8KNJk9María Corina Machado Life And Education
Machado is a Venezuelan politician, engineer, and the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner. Born in Caracas in 1967, Machado studied industrial engineering at Andrés Bello Catholic University and specialised in Finance at IESA, later joining Yale University's World Fellows programme.
Her early career included founding the Atenea Foundation, benefiting street children, and co-founding Súmate, an organisation dedicated to election monitoring and civic empowerment.
This groundwork laid the foundation for her lifelong commitment to social justice and democratic principles.
View this post on InstagramCrisis In Venezuela
Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal, authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis. Most Venezuelans live in deep poverty, even as the few at the top enrich themselves. The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country's own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country. The opposition has been systematically suppressed by means of election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment.
María Corina Machado's Work In Venezuela
According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Venezuela's authoritarian regime makes political work extremely difficult. As a founder of Súmate, an organisation devoted to democratic development, Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago. As she said, "It was a choice of ballots over bullets."
In political office and in her service to organisations since then, Machado has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights and popular representation. She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people.
Ahead of the election of 2024, Machado was the opposition's presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She then backed the representative of a different party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in the election. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers mobilised across political divides. They were trained as election observers to ensure a transparent and fair election. Despite the risk of harassment, arrest and torture, citizens across the country held watch over the polling stations. They made sure the final tallies were documented before the regime could destroy ballots and lie about the outcome.
The efforts of the collective opposition, both before and during the election, were innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic. The opposition received international support when its leaders publicised the vote counts that had been collected from the country's election districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin but the regime refused to accept the election result, and clung to power.
Today, Machado continues to inspire millions who have sacrificed everything for Venezuela's freedom. She is described as a beacon keeping the flame of democracy alive in the growing darkness.
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