Venezuela’s ‘iron lady’ Maria Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize 2025

WEB DESK: The Nobel Peace Prize for the year 2025 has been awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award her owing to “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.”

The committee described Machado as a symbol of civilian courage in Latin America, praising her decades-long struggle for justice and freedom in a country that has seen its democracy collapse into authoritarian rule. Once a prosperous nation, Venezuela now faces deep poverty, repression, and the exodus of nearly eight million citizens.

Born in 1967, Machado, a former lawmaker and founder of the pro-democracy organisation Súmate, has long campaigned for fair elections and judicial independence. In 2024, after her presidential candidacy was blocked, she rallied behind opposition figure Edmundo González Urrutia, uniting political factions and mobilising thousands of citizens to monitor the vote despite intimidation and arrests.

The committee noted that her movement’s peaceful and transparent efforts demonstrated that “the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace.” Though forced into hiding, Machado has continued to inspire millions through her steadfast refusal to abandon Venezuela.

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The Nobel Committee said her award carries a broader message at a time when democracy is under threat worldwide: lasting peace depends on those who defend freedom through courage, words and nonviolent resistance. Machado, it said, “embodies the hope of a future where citizens’ voices are protected, and their rights respected.”