“When tyrants seize power, brave defenders of freedom who rise and resist must be honored.”
The Nobel Committee announced on its page on the X platform on Friday that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado had won the Nobel Peace Prize. According to Jørgen Watne Frydnes, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, Machado “has provided an extraordinary example of courage in civic activism in Latin America in recent years.”
In a statement, the committee said Machado received the award “for her tireless efforts to advance the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
It added, “When tyrants seize power, brave defenders of freedom who rise and resist must be honored.”
This year, the committee chose to focus on Venezuela in a context dominated by repeated public remarks from U.S. President Donald Trump claiming that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.
Before the announcement, experts on the prize said Trump was unlikely to win because he is actively dismantling the global order valued by the Nobel Committee.
The Nobel Peace Prize — worth 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million) — will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who established the awards in his 1895 will.
Pressure Campaign
Trump had waged an “aggressive and unprecedented” lobbying campaign to the Norwegian Nobel Committee to secure the peace prize. The British newspaper The Times noted historical precedents of controversial U.S. presidents receiving the award.
On Thursday, The Times quoted Erik Aasheim, spokesperson for the Nobel Institute, as saying that the committee had made its final decision last Monday—before the agreement on a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas—meaning the recent truce did not influence their decision, which was set to be announced Friday.
The Times report explained that the committee’s deliberations are completely confidential, with its five Norwegian members sworn to secrecy, while nomination lists remain sealed for 50 years.
Other frequently mentioned contenders included Yulia Navalnaya, widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), and a network of humanitarian initiatives in Sudan.
