Not Trump, Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize
US President Donald Trump’s quest for the award has fallen short despite nominations from high-profile figures.
Venezuelan politician and democracy activist María Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2025 for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of her country and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.
While announcing the prize today (10 October), the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee said that as the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.
The Nobel Peace Prize was announced this afternoon (Bangladesh time), making US President Donald Trump's quest for the award fall short despite his repeated statements that he deserved it for stopping "eight wars".
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Speaking at the UN General Assembly recently, Trump commented that "everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize". Israel and Hamas agreeing to the first phase of Trump's peace plan on 8 October increased speculation over a potential win for the US president.
Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer who lives in hiding, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela's courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013. Trump is also a fierce critic of Maduro.
The Nobel Peace Prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma, and a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million.
The award will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prizes' creator, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
In a statement, the Nobel Prize Committee said, "Machado has been 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.
"This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy: our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree. At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground."
Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal, authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis. Most Venezuelans live in deep poverty, even as the few at the top enrich themselves.
The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country's own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country. The opposition has been systematically suppressed by means of election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment, adds the statement.
Venezuela's authoritarian regime makes political work extremely difficult. As a founder of Súmate, an organisation devoted to democratic development, Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago. As she said, "It was a choice of ballots over bullets."
In political office and in her service to organisations since then, Machado has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights and popular representation. She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people, read the statement.
Ahead of the election of 2024, Machado was the opposition's presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She then backed the representative of a different party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in the election. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers mobilised across political divides. They were trained as election observers to ensure a transparent and fair election.
Despite the risk of harassment, arrest and torture, citizens across the country held watch over the polling stations. They made sure the final tallies were documented before the regime could destroy ballots and lie about the outcome, said the Nobel Prize Committee.
The efforts of the collective opposition, both before and during the election, were innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic. The opposition received international support when its leaders publicised the vote counts that had been collected from the country's election districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin. But the regime refused to accept the election result and clung to power.
The committee also said democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. "However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence. The Venezuelan regime's rigid hold on power and its repression of the population are not unique in the world.
"We see the same trends globally: rule of law abused by those in control, free media silenced, critics imprisoned, and societies pushed towards authoritarian rule and militarisation. In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer are free and fair."
"In its long history, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has honoured brave women and men who have stood up to repression, who have carried the hope of freedom in prison cells, on the streets and in public squares, and who have shown by their actions that peaceful resistance can change the world. In the past year, Ms 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 of people," read the statement.
When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist, it said. Democracy depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted, but must always be defended – with words, with courage and with determination.
The Nobel Prize Committee said that Machado met all three criteria stated in Alfred Nobel's will for the selection of a Peace Prize laureate. "She has brought her country's opposition together. She has never wavered in resisting the militarisation of Venezuelan society. She has been steadfast in her support for a peaceful transition to democracy."
Machado has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace. She embodies the hope of a different future, one where the fundamental rights of citizens are protected, and their voices are heard. In this future, people will finally be free to live in peace, said the committee.
Trump sidelined
US President Donald Trump had made no secret of his desire to win this year's prize.
The committee took its final decision before a ceasefire and hostage deal under the first phase of Trump's initiative to end the war in Gaza was announced on Wednesday.
Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, the US president has repeatedly insisted that he "deserves" the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts -- a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated.
But Nobel Prize experts in Oslo had insisted in the run-up to Friday's announcement that he had no chance, noting that his "America First" policies run counter to the ideals of the Peace Prize as laid out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will creating the award.
Last year, the prestigious prize went to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The Peace Prize is the only Nobel awarded in Oslo, with the other disciplines announced in Stockholm.
On Thursday, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Laszlo Krasznahorkai, considered by many as Hungary's most important living author, whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.
The 2025 Nobel season will wind up on Monday with the economics prize.
