María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader driven into hiding since a disputed election last year, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado received the accolade for tirelessly promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and “for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday, announcing the award at a ceremony in Oslo.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, in 1967, Machado trained as an industrial engineer before entering politics. In 2002, she founded Súmate, a volunteer group that promotes political rights and monitors elections.
Machado has described her life’s work as promoting “ballots over bullets.” The Nobel committee lauded her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”
