OSLO, Oct 10: The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to Venezuela's opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, who has been forced to live in hiding in what has become a "brutal" state, the Nobel jury said.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said she was "in shock" after being named the latest Nobel Peace laureate.
Machado, who has lived in hiding for the past year, was honoured "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," said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
"I am in shock," the opposition leader said in a video sent to AFP by her press team.
Venezuela has transformed from a relatively democratic and prosperous country into a "brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis," Frydnes said.
"The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country's own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country," he added.
The opposition has been systematically suppressed through "election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment."
Nobel laureate Machado feared for her life leaving Venezuela
In this context, Machado has emerged as a "key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided."
The committee hailed her as "one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times."
"Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions," the jury noted.
Ahead of Venezuela's 2024 election, Machado was the opposition's presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She later backed a reluctant, little-known ex-diplomat, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, as her stand-in.
Machado's Nobel win was a surprise, as her name had not been among those mentioned as possible laureates in the run-up to Friday's announcement.
Trump’s hopes dashed
US President Donald Trump had made no secret of his desire to win this year's prize.
Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, the US leader has repeatedly insisted that he "deserves" the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts — a claim observers say is largely exaggerated.
But Nobel experts in Oslo had stressed before Friday’s announcement that Trump had no chance, noting that his "America First" policies run counter to the ideals of the Peace Prize as set out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will establishing the award.
Frydnes emphasized that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not influenced by lobbying campaigns. "In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee has seen every type of campaign and media attention," he said."We receive thousands of letters every year from people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace."
"We base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel," he added.
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 prize includes a gold medal, a diploma and a sum of $1.2 million. It will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
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, widely regarded as Hungary's most important living author, whose works explore themes of postmodern dystopia and melancholy.
The 2025 Nobel season concludes Monday with the economics prize.
