Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition politician

María Corina Machado on Friday won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her attempt to protect democracy as authoritarianism rises in Venezuela, according to the Norwegian Nobel committee. She leads the Vente Venezuela opposition party and in 2017 founded an alliance to unite pro-democracy groups. Machado in 2023 ran for president in the 2024 presidential election. She later backed candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia who many claim was the real winner of the election despite President Nicolás Maduro claiming victory. Machado has been living in hiding in Venezuela despite threats against her life, said chair of the Nobel committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes.

How did world leaders respond? In a social media post Machado dedicated the prize to the suffering of the Venezuelan people and to President Donald Trump for his support of the pro-democracy movement. Gonzalez, who lives in exile in Spain, posted a video of himself speaking with Machado in which he congratulated his political ally for winning the award. Meanwhile, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said the committee placed politics over peace by snubbing Trump for the award. Trump had publicly said he would like to win the peace prize and has been nominated for the honor for securing the Abraham Accords during his first presidential term. Trump on Thursday said he would accept the Nobel committee’s decision and that he did not broker a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in order to win the prize.

Dig deeper: Read Eric Patterson’s opinion piece about why Maduro should be removed from office.