Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, a decision that capped weeks of speculation and shut the door on U.S. President Donald Trump’s high-profile courtship of the award. Announcing the choice in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee cited Machado “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,” wording that underscored the committee’s focus on civil resistance under authoritarian rule. The prize—worth 11 million Swedish kronor—will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
The selection placed the spotlight firmly on Venezuela’s embattled democracy movement and on a figure who has spent years mobilising support at home and abroad despite bans, threats and harassment by the government of Nicolás Maduro. Machado, 58, a former legislator and founder of the civic group Súmate, rose to renewed prominence after winning the opposition’s 2023 primary before being barred from the 2024 presidential ballot, forcing the coalition to shift behind a substitute candidate amid intensifying repression. In its coverage, the Associated Press noted that Machado continued her work while in hiding and that protests around the disputed vote were met with crackdowns that left multiple people dead.
The committee’s chair, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, framed the award as recognition of democratic resilience in a darkening regional landscape. Ahead of the announcement, he told Reuters that “all politicians want to win the Nobel Peace Prize,” but stressed the committee’s independence from political pressure. That message acquired extra edge this year because the run-up to Friday had been dominated by Trump’s repeated public assertions that he deserved the honour.
Trump’s pursuit of the prize had become part of his political narrative long before the 2025 cycle. In June he said, “They won’t give me a Nobel Peace Prize because they only give it to liberals,” a line he returned to in recent weeks even as he claimed credit for ending or mediating a string of conflicts. On Thursday, the day before the announcement, he told reporters he would be fine with a snub: “Whatever they do is fine. I know this, I didn’t do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives.” He has also alternated between insisting he merits the award and predicting he would not get it: “Will you get the Nobel Prize? Absolutely not.” Those statements, recorded across interviews and posts, set expectations for both outcome and reaction.