Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her “tireless work promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people” and her “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Friday.

The decision places Machado—long the face of Venezuela’s democratic movement—among the ranks of global icons such as Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi, leaders who have challenged autocratic rule at extraordinary personal cost.

“The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 goes to a brave and committed champion of peace—a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness,” the committee said while announcing its decision. Machado “is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize 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.”

Upon receiving the call from the Nobel Committee informing her that it was about to announce that she was this year’s winner of the Peace Price, an amazed Machado said she had no words to express how she felt.

“My God, my God… I have no words. Thank you so much, but I hope you understand that this is a movement. This is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person, I certainly do not deserve it,” Machado said in a telephone conversation released by the Nobel Foundation.

The committee described Machado as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civic courage in Latin America in recent times,” emphasizing that she has shown how “the tools of democracy are also those of peace.” It credited her with uniting a once-fractured opposition around a common goal: free elections and representative government.

The honor comes as Machado remains in hiding in Venezuela for security reasons. Supporters say she continues to operate from within the Latin American nation despite arrest warrants and government accusations that she is conspiring to destabilize the country.

In an op-ed published last year in The Wall Street Journal, titled “I Can Prove That Maduro Got Trounced,” Machado revealed she was in hiding and feared for her life.

“I write this from hiding, fearing for my life, my freedom, and that of my fellow countrymen under the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro,” she wrote. “Mr. Maduro did not win the Venezuelan presidential election [on July 2024].... He lost by a landslide to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%. I know this to be true because I can prove it.”

Her column came just days after Venezuela’s electoral authority—controlled by Maduro loyalists—declared the president re-elected with 51% of the vote, triggering widespread protests across the country.

Machado and her team claim to possess receipts from more than 80% of the country’s polling stations, which they say confirmed that opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a wide margin. The regime has so far failed to release the official vote records.

As the disputed results reverberated across Venezuela, the Maduro government launched one of its most severe crackdowns in years. Human rights groups report that at least 2,000 people have been arrested, with dozens confirmed dead and hundreds injured in clashes with security forces.

In a statement Friday morning, Machado said that she dedicated the Nobel Peace Prize to the people of Venezuela, who she says have “fought for their freedom with admirable courage, dignity, intelligence, and love” against “a tyranny obsessed with subjugating its citizens and breaking the soul of the nation.”

She also detailed a grim reality marked by “detentions, torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial executions that constitute crimes against humanity and state terrorism.” Acknowledging the immense cost of the struggle, she recalled “thousands of lives lost and millions forced to leave their land.” Yet, she insisted, “Today we are very close to achieving our goal.”

She called the award “a unique boost that injects energy and confidence into Venezuelans, both at home and abroad,” and emphasized that it shows “the global democratic community understands and shares our struggle.”

Machado’s political journey has been marked by both perseverance and persecution. Once a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly, she rose to prominence as a fierce critic of Hugo Chávez and later Nicolás Maduro.

Her popularity surged after she won the 2023 opposition primary with 93% of the vote, positioning her as the clear challenger to Maduro ahead of the 2024 presidential election. But the government swiftly disqualified her from holding public office, citing spurious administrative charges.

Unable to run, Machado threw her support behind González—a former diplomat—whose candidacy she helped unify across Venezuela’s fragmented opposition. Her endorsement proved decisive.

Polls and independent observers indicate that González likely won nearly 70% of the vote—a result recognized by the United States, the European Union, and multiple Latin American governments.

After the disputed election, González fled into exile, while Machado remained behind, going underground as the government rounded up opposition activists, journalists, and protesters.

Human rights groups estimate that more than 2,400 people have been arrested since the election, with at least 28 confirmed dead during the demonstrations. Some, according to activists, were tortured to death in custody.

This week’s Nobel announcement caps a series of international tributes to Machado’s defiance and moral authority.

In April, she was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2025, with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio contributing a glowing tribute, calling her “a beacon of hope.”

“A woman of faith who valiantly marches the streets of her homeland armed with the holy rosary and supported by countless courageous Venezuelans, Machado has stood firm against it all,” Rubio wrote. “Her principled leadership is making our region and our world a better place.”

Rubio described her as “the Venezuelan Iron Lady,” praising her resilience and patriotism.

In South Florida, home to the largest number of Venezuelan exiles in the United States, the news about the Nobel Peace Prize spread quickly.

Adelys Ferro, executive director of the Venezuelan American Caucus, a nonprofit organization, said the phrase that best captures Machado’s decades-long fight for a democratic transition in Venezuela is “ballots over bullets.”

Ferro, a Venezuelan activist in the U.S., said Machado’s fight for democracy has never stopped.

“Hers is a democratic struggle, the struggle of a Venezuelan woman who represents all of us in the pursuit of freedom and democracy,” she said. “In the words of the Nobel Committee, this award sends a message to all authoritarians around the world, at a time when democracy is in retreat.”

Rafael Pineyro, a Venezuelan-American council member in Doral, the U.S. city with the largest Venezuelan population, said he celebrated with “deep pride” the Nobel Committee’s award to Machado.

“This recognition sends a clear message to the world: the fight for freedom, democracy, and the dignity of the Venezuelan people has not been in vain,” Pineyro said. “From Doral, a city that welcomes thousands of Venezuelans, I reaffirm my commitment to the values she embodies: courage, truth, and hope.”

He added: “We look forward to the day we can celebrate the full restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”

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—Miami Herald staff writer Veronica Egui Brito contributed to this story.

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