The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader, for her promotion of democracy

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 was awarded on Friday to Venezuelan political opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, “for her tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela.” Venezuela And for its struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Announcing the award, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frednes, described Machado as a “courageous and committed champion of peace.”

He praised Machado as “a key unifying figure in a previously deeply divided political opposition – an opposition that has found common ground in demanding free elections and representative government.”

Venezuela has been ruled by an authoritarian regime for decades, led by current President Nicolas Maduro, whose election in 2024 has been widely dismissed as undemocratic and whose leadership has not been recognized by the United States or many other countries. Maduro has been increasingly imprisoned A tense confrontation with President Trump’s governmentWhich accuses Maduro of working with drug trafficking gangs that smuggle drugs into the United States

Instead, the Trump administration recognized the Machado-backed opposition politician as the rightful winner of the 2024 election.

Rumors have circulated on social media for weeks that Machado, who has been in hiding since the 2024 election, may be hiding out at the US embassy in her country’s capital. Machado supported US military pressure on the Maduro regime as a “necessary measure” toward “restoring popular sovereignty in Venezuela.”

Following Machado’s brief detention early this year, when she was arrested after leading anti-government protests in Caracas, Mr. Trump issued a warning to Maduro about the safety of opposition leaders.

Mr. Trump said Machado was “peacefully expressing the voices and will of the Venezuelan people through the hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating against the regime. The great Venezuelan American community in the United States overwhelmingly supports a free Venezuela and supports me strongly. These freedom fighters should not be harmed and You must stay safe and alive!“

What is the Nobel Peace Prize and how is it awarded?

The Nobel Prize was founded by a Swedish businessman and prolific inventor named Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896. Nobel said in his will that his fortune would be used to establish a fund to distribute prizes, “to those who… have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind,” it says. Nobel Peace Prize website.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which determines the winner, says the prize should be given to the person who has done his best to promote peace in the world. Today, this committee consists of five members, chosen by the Norwegian Parliament. They study the candidates in secret, and the names of the candidates are kept under seal for 50 years. The nomination deadline is eight months before the announcement.

The value of the award for 2025 is 11 million Swedish krona, equivalent to more than one million US dollars.

Four US presidents and former presidents, as well as a former vice president, have won the Nobel Peace Prize, with former President Barack Obama winning in his first year in office “for his efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation.”

The other two presidents to receive this honor are Teddy Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1920. Former President Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, and former Vice President Al Gore received the honor in 2007.

President Trump’s Nobel Prize ambitions

President Trump had said that he “deserved” the award, and expressed several times his desire to receive the Nobel Prize, citing his involvement in stopping foreign conflicts.

The president’s political allies and some foreign leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had announced their intention to nominate the president for the award, although the committee did not reveal the nominees.

The president claims He ended seven wars – Between India and Pakistan, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia, Thailand and Cambodia, Serbia and Kosovo, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Armenia and Azerbaijan. Foreign policy experts He says Some of these conflicts were not large-scale wars, and many remain unresolved.

During a speech to US military commanders on September 30, the president said it would be a “great insult” to the country if he did not receive the award.

In his speech to the UN General Assembly last month, the president said: “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize,” citing his role in the Abraham Accords in the Middle East and his efforts to stop international conflicts.