The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded Maria Corina Machado the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025, recognizing her tireless efforts to promote democratic rights and a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela.
The Nobel Committee at a press conference said Ms Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago. As she said, it was a choice of ballots over bullets in political office and in her service to organisations.
Since then, Ms Machado has spoken out for judicial independence, human rights, and popular representation.
She has spent years working for the freedom of the Venezuelan people ahead of the 2024 election.
Ms Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy.
She then backed the representative of a different party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in the election.
Hundreds of thousands of volunteers mobilised across political divides. They were trained as election observers to ensure a transparent and fair election, despite the risk of harassment, arrest and torture of citizens.
GLOBAL TRACKER learned that last year, the European Union awarded its top human rights prize to Ms Machado along with another Venezuelan opposition politician, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.
The European Parliament said the winners of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought were “representing the people of Venezuela fighting to restore freedom and democracy.”