Oslo: Maria Corina Machado on Friday, October 10, was awarded Nobel Peace Prize 2025 for working for democratic rights of Venezuelans. Notably, US President Donald Trump was hoping to bag the Nobel Peace Prize.
"The Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 goes to a brave and committed champion of peace – to a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness. The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to Maria Corina Machado," the press release by the Nobel Prize committee stated.
"She 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.As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times," it added.
Machado is a Venezuelan politician and industrial engineer who is currently the opposition leader of the Latin American country. She served as an elected member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014. Almost 13 years back, in 2012, Machado entered politics as the founder and leader of the vote-monitoring group Sumate.
She is the National Coordinator of the political party, Vente Venezuela. Machado lost the 2012 Venezuelan presidential election to Henrique Capriles.
Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition. Under her leadership, the opposition got united for its demand for free elections and representative government. Notably, the ruling dispensation in Venezuela is facing allegations vote rigging and suppressing the opposition.
"As a founder of Sumate, an organisation devoted to democratic development, Ms Machado stood up for free and fair elections more than 20 years ago," the committee said.
Ahead of the election of 2024, Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate for the 2024 presidential polls in Venezuela. However, her candidacy was reportedly blocked the regime.
What Trump Said On Obama:
A day before the announcement of the Nobel Peace Prize, Trump had taken a swipe at former US President Barak Obama, who won the prize in the first eight months of his tenure in 2009. Trump also claimed that he has managed to end eight wars since he took charge in January this year.
I don't know what they're going to do, really, but I know this: That nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months, and I've stopped eight wars. So that's never happened before, but they'll have to do what they do. 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 said.
Taking a dig at Obama, he said, "He got a prize for doing nothing... He got elected, and they gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country... Obama was not a good President." Trump was pushing aggressively for the award.
