CBS NEWS — The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Venezuelan political opposition leader 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 democracy.”
Norwegian Nobel Committee Chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes, in announcing the award, called Machado “a brave and committed champion of peace.”
He lauded Machado as a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided — an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government.”
“In the past year, Miss Machado has been forced to live in hiding. Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions,” said Frydnes. “When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist.”
“I am in shock,” Machado said after learning she had been awarded the prize on Friday, according to the French news agency AFP, which said it received a video from her press team in which she could be heard reacting to the accolade in a phone call with a close ally.
Venezuela has been ruled by an autocratic regime for decades and is currently led by President Nicolas Maduro, whose election in 2024 was widely dismissed as non-democratic and whose leadership is not recognized by the U.S. and many other nations. Maduro has been locked in an increasingly tense standoff with the Trump administration, which has accused Maduro of working with drug smuggling gangs that traffic narcotics into the U.S.
