Venezuelan opposition leader and democracy activist María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her struggle against the Nicolás Maduro regime in Venezuela, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in Oslo.
Machado was recognised, in the words of committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes, “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,” according to international media reports.
Frydnes noted that the Venezuelan opposition leader has become “key, unifying figure in a political oppostion that was once deeply divided… in a brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis“. The committee further described her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times“, recalling that she has lived in hiding for the past year due to threats against her life. “Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions,” it added.
US President Donald Trump had repeatedly openly expressed his desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize this year. Since his return to the White House last January for a second term, Trump has insisted that he “deserves” the prize for his role in resolving various conflicts, although many political analysts consider these claims exaggerated and point out that his role in most cases has been more that of a mediator or facilitator, but building on work already done by others. Experts in Oslo had previously ruled out any possibility of a nomination for Trump, recalling that his ‘America First’ policy clashes head-on with the principles of the award set out by Alfred Nobel in his 1895 will.
The Nobel Committee meanwhile released a video of the moment Machado was informed that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize, just minutes before it was made public. In the footage, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Kristian Berg Harpviken, is visibly moved as he tells the Venezuelan opposition leader the news. “Oh my God“, the Venezuelan leader repeated five times before adding: “I have no words”. Visibly moved, María Corina Machado thanked the committee and said it was the “achievement of a whole society“. “I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve this,” she said emotionally in the video, before again thanking the committee for the “honour” she had received.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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