The Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes explained that María won the prize as a result of her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.”
He called her a “champion of peace” working to loosen the Venezuelan government’s “rigid hold on power.”
“Democracy depends on people … who dare to step forward in spite of grave risk.”
338 candidates ran for the Peace Prize this year, including 244 individuals and 94 organisations; 52 more than last year.
Last year, the Japanese peace organisation Nihon Hidankyo received the award for its efforts to promote a world free of nuclear weapons, drawing on testimony from survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The week concludes on Monday with the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Each prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (1.1 million dollars).
The prizes are formally presented at a ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and founder of the awards (1833–1896).
NAN