New Delhi: María Corina Machado, the famed ‘Iron Lady’ of Venezuela’s opposition, was announced the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner Friday for her work in promoting democratic rights in the Nicolás Maduro-led South American nation.
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPeacePrize to Maria Corina 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,” the committee said, in a statement on the social media platform X.
Machado, a former member of the Venezuelan National Assembly, emerged from the sidelines to spearhead a movement that brought thousands of Venezuelans to the streets last year for a presidential election after years of political apathy in the country, The New York Times has noted in a profile of the leader.
Since 2013, Venezuela has been led by President Nicolás Maduro, following the death of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, from the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
US President Donald Trump, who has been angling for the Peace Prize for years, did not get it, despite his claims of ending anywhere between five and eight conflicts across the globe in the last ten months. However, one of the conditions of the award was for work done in 2024, when Trump was President-elect but yet to be sworn in.
Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves, has seen its economy crumble against the backdrop of the US sanctions on its oil exports and the famed petro-socialism heralded by Chávez falling to the wayside. Over eight million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2014, according to UN agencies.
The ‘Iron Lady’ of Venezuela, Machado, was prevented from contesting the presidential polls in Venezuela in July 2024 by the court over charges of corruption and her support for US sanctions. But she was the main force behind opposition candidate Edmundo González Urrutia. Maduro was declared the winner in the disputed polls, and China and Russia recognised his victory, but the US recognised Urrutia as the victor.
Repeated efforts to unify the opposition against Maduro have failed, including Juan Guaidó’s 2018 attempt to oust the incumbent president with American support. In a country that has seen a fractured opposition movement and failed anti-government protests, Machado was able to bring political energy back to a section of civilians in the 2024 polls.
‘Democracy under retreat’
María Corina Machado has been in hiding since disappearing from public view following the 2024 election results. Led by Machado, the opposition has claimed that Urrutia defeated Maduro, with 67 percent of the votes in favour, more than the 30 percent of votes that the incumbent president garnered.
Writing from hiding last year for the Wall Street Journal, Machado highlighted the steps taken by the opposition to ensure free and fair elections, including the organisation of 60,000 comanditos, or small campaign units, set up “around kitchen tables” across the country. Supported by one million volunteers, the opposition ensured that every vote was counted.
Machado alleged that despite Maduro’s efforts to crack down on the volunteers, they were able to save the voter receipts, published a day after the counting, indicating that Urrutia received over 7 million votes to Maduro’s 3.3 million votes.
“Democracy is a precondition for lasting peace. However, we live in a world where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence…. In 2024, more elections were held than ever before, but fewer and fewer are free and fair,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its statement while awarding Machado the Nobel Peace Prize.
Machado meets the three criteria set out by Alfred Nobel’s will for the Peace Prize—she unified the opposition, never wavered in resisting the militarisation of Venezuelan society and is steadfast in supporting the peaceful transition to democracy.
Despite protests breaking out across the country following Maduro’s claim to victory, the incumbent leader was able to hold on to power by instituting a crackdown on protesters, seeing hundreds imprisoned. Machado, who appeared out of hiding in January ahead of Maduro’s inauguration ceremony, was briefly arrested and freed by Venezuelan authorities.
Meanwhile, Urrutia fled the country and is living in exile in Spain, continuing his advocacy for the recognition of the alleged results of his victory in the July 2024 polls.
‘The Iron Lady’
Machado criss-crossed Venezuela in the early months of 2024, with rosaries hanging from her neck, leading the charge against Maduro in a country facing a crippling economic situation.
“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, defending the land of Bolívar. Her principled leadership is a beacon of hope, making our region and our world a better place,” Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, wrote in a profile of the Venezuelan leader for TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025.
A 57-year-old Conservative leader, earlier expelled from her party, Vente Venezuela, and opposition coalitions, Machado built a political movement as significant as Hugo Chávez’s, to reshape the politics of a country deeply tied to the revolutionary legacy of Simón Bolívar.
Machado’s 2024 run was not her first fight with Maduro or the movement built by Chávez. In 2005, The New York Times described the then 38-year-old Machado as the “most detested adversary” of President Chávez.
At the time, Machado ran Súmate, an election-monitoring organisation focused on unearthing the “election chicanery” by Chávez to stay in power in Venezuela. Fluent in English, Machado, two decades ago, did not hide her closeness with power brokers in Washington D.C., with Súmate receiving funds from the US.
The eldest of four girls, Machado grew up in a staunchly Catholic, conservative family. A privileged childhood, Machado studied at an elite Catholic girls’ school in Caracas, attended a boarding school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, and took trips to Europe and her family’s mountain retreat, according to The New York Times.
A graduate of engineering from the Catholic University in Caracas, Machado eventually joined her mother in running a home for 140 troubled and abandoned children. In 2002, she turned to political activism.
According to reports, her most favoured politician is Margaret Thatcher, famously called the ‘Iron Lady’ of the United Kingdom. Machado has called for the privatisation of the Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Venezuela’s state-run oil behemoth—a move seen by her critics as giving up the country’s resources.
Machado was present in the presidential palace when army officers and opposition figures led a short-lived coup d’état by removing Chávez and installing Pedro Carmona as the new leader of the country in 2002.
The ‘Iron Lady’ of Venezuela is also mother to three adult children—all living abroad.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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