Not Trump, María Corina Machado Venezuela's Democracy Rights Activist Wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 has been announced today, October 10, at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Oslo. Established by Swedish inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The prize goes to María Corina Machado, a Democracy Rights Activist. She became the first woman from the country to win the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. She won 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.

Last year's award went to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of Japanese atomic bombing survivors who have worked for decades to maintain a taboo around the use of nuclear weapons. Four of the other prizes have already been awarded in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, this week — in medicine on Monday, physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The winner of the prize in economics will be announced on Monday.

Also Read: Why Donald Trump Lost Out On Nobel Prize Even After Gaza’s Israel-Hamas Peace Deal

Who is María Corina Machado?

Machado, who is most famously known as the leader of the democratic opposition in the country of Venezuela, was born in Caracas in 1967. She is a descendant of the 3rd Marquis of Toro. Venezuelan politician and industrial engineer who is currently the opposition leader in Venezuela. She served as an elected member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014. Ms Machado has been a key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government. Machado’s legal situation may not allow her to leave Venezuela, but that has not held her back from making a global impact. 

Why the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Norway — unlike the others

Of all the Nobel Prizes, the Peace Prize stands apart — quite literally. While the prizes for literature, physics, chemistry, medicine and economics are presented in Stockholm, the Peace Prize is the only one of the annual Nobel prizes to be awarded in Oslo, Norway.

It was Alfred Nobel himself who made that decision. In his will, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite decreed that the Peace Prize should be awarded by a committee appointed by the Norwegian parliament, the Storting. He offered no reason for this unusual stipulation, and none has ever been conclusively established.

What is known is that the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee continues to select the laureates each year, maintaining a tradition that has puzzled and intrigued historians ever since Nobel’s will was read.