Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for her courageous leadership in defending democracy and human rights amid growing authoritarianism in her country.

Machado, an engineer and finance expert, began her career in business before turning to social activism. In 1992, she founded the Atenea Foundation to support street children in Caracas. A decade later, she co-founded Súmate, an organization that promotes free and fair elections through voter education and election monitoring.

Elected to Venezuela’s National Assembly in 2010 with a record number of votes, Machado was expelled from office in 2014 by the ruling regime. She currently leads the opposition party Vente Venezuela and in 2017 helped establish the Soy Venezuela alliance, which brings together pro-democracy movements across political divides.

In 2023, Machado announced her candidacy for the 2024 presidential election but was later barred from contesting. She then backed the opposition’s alternative candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia. The opposition documented widespread evidence that it had won the election, though the regime declared victory and further consolidated its hold on power.

The Nobel Committee said Machado is being recognized “first and foremost for her efforts to advance democracy in Venezuela.” The statement also noted that democracy is increasingly under threat worldwide, emphasizing that “the right to freely express one’s opinion, to cast one’s vote, and to be represented in elective government is the foundation of peace both within and between nations.”

The Nobel Peace Prize will be formally presented to María Corina Machado at the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10, 2025.