On December 10th, 2025, the Nobel Peace Prize 2025 was awarded to Marina Corina Machado, a leading Venezuelan opposition politician, industrial engineer, and pro-democracy activist. Born on October 7, 1967, in Caracas, she co-founded the civic group Súmate in 2002 to promote election transparency and citizen political rights. Elected to the National Assembly in 2010, she was expelled in 2014 after criticizing the Maduro government at the Organization of American States. Known as Venezuela’s “Iron Lady,” Machado has remained a vocal challenger of authoritarianism under Nicolás Maduro. (aljazeera.com, britannica.com) However, she is also a supporter of the current Trump administration’s economic policy and US military isolation and ended up dedicating her prize to the current US president.
She received the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize “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.” The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised her as “a brave and committed champion of peace, a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness”.
