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Ms. Machado galvanized a movement that independent analysts say won last year’s election, only to have it stolen by President Nicolás Maduro.
Oct. 10, 2025Updated 4:25 p.m. ET
María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who built a powerful social movement and became the most significant threat and detested adversary to the country’s longstanding authoritarian regime, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
A conservative former member of the national assembly, Ms. Machado has been a driving force in opposing a quarter century of socialist rule that has grown increasingly repressive under President Nicolás Maduro. She has been living in hiding since last year, when Mr. Maduro cracked down on the opposition after claiming victory in an election that was widely seen by independent analysts as fraudulent.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Ms. 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.”
Ms. Machado has largely avoided commenting on whether Mr. Maduro’s removal should involve U.S. military intervention in Venezuela. But she has been a strong supporter of President Trump’s military buildup in the Caribbean, where American forces have destroyed several suspected drug boats in international waters, killing at least 21 people.
“I totally support the international deployment and coalition that’s working in the Caribbean to stop the flow of illegal drug income to the regime,” Ms. Machado told the BBC last week.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute was able to reach Ms. Machado by telephone a few moments before the prize was announced to tell her she had been selected. “Oh my God,” she said in a video posted by the committee on social media. “Well, I have no words.”
