Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday despite a chorus of world leaders who pushed for President Donald Trump to win this year’s honor.
The five-person Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Machado’s “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and … her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
BREAKING NEWS
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/Zgth8KNJk9— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 10, 2025
Machado won her party’s primary, setting her up to challenge Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in the 2024 election, but the opposition leader was disqualified from holding office by the Venezuelan government. Machado then got behind opposition candidate Edmundo González, who appeared to defeat Maduro at the polls, but the country’s National Electoral Council declared Maduro the winner.
In the lead-up to the election and in its aftermath, Maduro’s regime repressed dissent and jailed opposition leaders. Machado was forced to go into hiding and has not been seen publicly since January, the Associated Press reported. Machado’s ally, González, who is living in exile in Spain, praised the Nobel Committee’s decision, saying it was a “very well-deserved recognition for the long struggle of a woman and of an entire people for our freedom and democracy.” He also posted a video of himself talking to Machado over the phone about the prize. Machado told him, “I am in shock. I cannot believe it,” the AP reported.
¡Nuestra querida Maria Corina Machado, galardonada con el Premio Nobel de la Paz 2025! Merecidísimo reconocimiento a la larga lucha de una mujer y de todo un pueblo por nuestra libertad y democracia. ¡La primer Nobel de Venezuela! ¡Enhorabuena @mariacorinaya, Venezuela será… pic.twitter.com/jpmrUEujtL
— Edmundo González (@EdmundoGU) October 10, 2025
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung responded to the news, saying that the Nobel Committee “proved they place politics over peace.”
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“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives,” Cheung added. “He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”
The deadline for this year’s nominations was January 31, just days after Trump had taken office for his second term. After more than eight months of stringing together peace plans in numerous conflicts around the world and successfully getting Israel and Hamas to agree to a ceasefire and the first phase of his peace deal, many people believed that Trump deserved this year’s prize.
World leaders who have said that Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Argentinian President Javier Milei, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and Félix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the past, the committee had no issue awarding the Nobel Prize to a president shortly after he came into office. In 2009, former President Barack Obama was awarded the prize just months into his first term for ambiguous reasons. The committee awarded Obama the Nobel Prize for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples” and for creating “a new climate in international politics.”
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