US President Donald Trump’s dream of winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has evaporated after the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the prize in recognition of her “peaceful struggle to restore democracy in Venezuela and achieve a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to civilian rule.”

The committee stated in a release from Oslo that Machado was chosen “in recognition of her courage in defending the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and her insistence on achieving change through peaceful means despite repression and threats.”

Nobel Honors the Struggle

The committee also viewed the timing as appropriate to highlight the “long-standing struggle for democracy in one of Latin America’s most authoritarian countries,” emphasizing that “peace is not only measured by the cessation of wars but also by establishing justice and freedom.”

This win represents a symbolic shift in international attention to the Venezuelan crisis, which has worsened for over a decade as the country slid into a severe economic and political crisis under President Nicolás Maduro.

The decision also comes in a year dominated by Trump’s media presence due to his repeated claims that he “deserves the Nobel Peace Prize,” asserting that his foreign policy brought stability to the Middle East and Africa.

It is noted that the prize is worth 11 million Swedish kronor (about 1.2 million US dollars) and will be officially awarded at a ceremony in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the prize’s founder, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.

Who is María Corina Machado?

Machado (57 years old) is one of the most prominent opposition figures in Venezuela since the early 2000s. She was born in Caracas in 1967 to a well-off family involved in engineering and industry, studied industrial engineering at Andrés Bello Catholic University, and later pursued public administration studies at Yale University in the US.

She rose to public prominence in 2002 when she helped found “Súmate,” a non-profit civic movement that contributed to organizing the 2004 referendum on the continuation of the late President Hugo Chávez’s rule.

Since then, she has faced harassment and accusations from the government of “conspiring against the state.”

Machado was elected to parliament in 2010 as an opposition member and became known for her bold speeches against Chávez and later Maduro.

In 2014, following widespread protests, the parliament stripped her of parliamentary immunity and barred her from running for any office, but this did not stop her political activity, as she became one of the leading faces of the democratic opposition coalition.

Persistence, Not Violence

In recent years, Machado represented a reformist current within the opposition, calling for a peaceful transfer of power and rebuilding institutions instead of sliding into armed conflict. She rejected resorting to violence despite repression, considering that “freedom is seized by civil persistence, not by arms.”

Although barred from running in the 2024 presidential elections, she maintained her leadership position within the opposition front and remained a symbol of civil resistance in a country suffering from severe economic collapse, mass emigration, and declining freedoms.

Honoring a Long Struggle

By awarding the prize to Machado, the Nobel Committee aims to send a dual message: supporting efforts for democratic transition in Venezuela and emphasizing the importance of peaceful struggle against authoritarian regimes.

In her first statement after the announcement, Machado said, “I dedicate this prize to all Venezuelans who have not lost hope in freedom. This prize is a reminder that the world hears our voice and that we are not alone in this battle.”

In Washington, no comment has yet been issued by Trump’s team, who had hoped their significant political efforts would be rewarded with a Nobel Prize.

Meanwhile, an American commentator sarcastically wrote, “While Trump waits for the Nobel on Twitter, a woman from Caracas has already won it because she chose struggle over tweeting.”