Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Venezuelan Opposition Leader

The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 is Maria Corina Machado, a woman who has been described as Venezuela's "symbol of resistance" to Nicolas Maduro's regime. The Nobel Committee said Friday morning that it had decided to award the prize to the opposition leader 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." Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the Norwegian committee's chair, described her as a "brave and committed champion of peace" who "keeps the flame of democracy burning during a growing darkness," the Guardian reports.

Asked about President Trump's push to be awarded the prize, Frydnes said the committee receives thousands of letters a year and it has seen "media tension" in the past, the BBC reports. "We base our decision only on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel," he said. Trump has long said he deserves a peace prize and he stepped up his campaign in recent months, though the committee held its final meeting on Monday, days before the breakthrough in Gaza peace talks.

Before the announcement, Norwegian newspaper columnist Harald Stanghelle said that if he didn't get the prize, Trump might retaliate against Norway by imposing higher tariffs or even by declaring the country an enemy, the Guardian reports. Trump "is so unpredictable. I don't want to use the word 'fear' but there is a feeling that it could be a challenging situation," he said. "It's very, very difficult to explain to Donald Trump or to many other countries in the world that it is a totally independent committee because they do not respect this kind of independence."

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Nina Graeger, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said Trump's public push for the prize was "unusual" and his claim to have ended at least seven conflicts was "bold," the New York Times reports. She noted that the prize honors "sustainable and lasting peace," meaning Trump could have a better chance next year if the Gaza peace deal holds. The Nobel committee said 338 candidates—244 individuals and 94 organizations—were nominated for this year's prize, a "significant increase from last year," the BBC reports. Lists of nominees are kept secret for 50 years.