Maria Corina Machado says Nobel Peace Prize tells Venezuelans ‘we are not alone’

Maria Corina Machado told CBS News on Friday Receiving the Nobel Peace Prize As a message to its Venezuelan citizens that “we are not alone.”

“They were part of this huge movement,” Machado told CBS News via Zoom. “We are not alone. The world recognizes this huge, epic battle.”

Machado is the leader of the pro-democracy movement in Venezuela, which is under a dictatorship so brutal that she has had to live in hiding.

“This is definitely the biggest tribute to our people,” Machado told CBS News, the only US media outlet she spoke to after Friday’s announcement.

Machado, 58, known as Venezuela’s “Iron Lady,” has led a massive political movement challenging the country’s authoritarian leaders for more than two decades.

First, it challenged former President Hugo Chavez, and now it has challenged his successor, President Nicolas Maduro July 2024 re-election contested The United States did not recognize it, Which was announced instead Opposition leader Edmundo Gonzalez Now exiledLike the winner.

Over the past few months, the Trump administration The pressure has been put on against the Maduro regime, deployed warships in the southern Caribbean Sea, and launched military strikes on drug boats that it says originate from Venezuela.

Last week at the White House Notify Congress That the United States was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels that it designated as terrorist organizations.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement that Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize because he kept “the flame of democracy burning amidst growing darkness.”

A video was captured The emotional moment when Machado received the award was a phone call from Christian Berg Harpviken, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

“Oh my God. I have no words. Thank you so much,” Machado said in the call. “I hope you understand that this is a movement, and this is an achievement for an entire community. I’m just one person, and I certainly don’t deserve this. Oh my God.”

Machado’s challenge came at a cost. She spent the past year in hiding after Maduro repeatedly threatened to arrest her.

CBS News was with Machado in Venezuela last year during the presidential election, when Maduro declared victory despite an international outcry over the fraud.

Maduro’s campaign against the opposition has escalated, but that has not stopped it.

“I think it gives me a lot of protection,” Machado said of how receiving the Nobel Prize might change her future and security situation. “But the most important thing is that it highlights, around the world, the importance of Venezuela’s struggle.”

Machado told CBS News that she spoke with President Trump on Friday and thanked him “from the bottom of the Venezuelan heart.”

She said she told Trump that he could “make sure that we are a society committed to freedom, and that we will prevail.”