{"id":202495,"date":"2025-10-10T11:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202495\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T11:11:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T11:11:06","slug":"venezuelan-opposition-leader-maria-corina-machado-awarded-the-nobel-peace-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/202495\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado awarded the Nobel Peace Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader, it was announced Friday at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.<\/p>\n

Machado 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,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.<\/p>\n

Machado, who turned 58 earlier this week, has spent months in hiding because of threats to her life. She was detained for a time<\/a> in January after an opposition rally, the week that Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for a third six-year term as president in a controversial 2024 election.<\/p>\n

“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the five-person Nobel committee said in its citation.<\/p>\n

Machado and Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez, considered the rightful winner of the last Venezuelan election by several governments, including Canada, were previously honoured in December 2024 by the European Parliament with the Sakharov Prize, a human rights award. <\/p>\n

Machado was set to run against Maduro in the July 2024 election, but was disqualified by the government, with Gonzalez taking her place. <\/p>\n

The Nobel laureates, which this week have included winners in medicine, physics, chemistry and literature, are presented in a ceremony at Oslo City Hall on Dec. 10 \u2014 the anniversary of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel’s death. Nobel laureates also receive a cash prize worth 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately $1.6 million Cdn).<\/p>\n

The committee said it was not clear if Machado would be able to attend due to security reasons.<\/p>\n

Machado was selected from a list of 338 nominees, which it said was a significant increase from the number of nominations last year. <\/p>\n

The United Nations Human Rights Office on Friday congratulated Machado.<\/p>\n

“This recognition reflects the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections, for civil and political rights and for the rule of law,” said the office’s spokesperson, Thameen al-Kheetan. <\/p>\n

WATCH | Machado among those to contest Venezuela’s 2024 election:<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump has openly campaigned to be considered for the honour. But the deadline for nominations for the 2025 prize was Jan. 31, just days into his second, non-consecutive term as president. <\/p>\n

J\u00f8rgen Watne Frydnes, from the Norwegian Nobel Institute, responding to a reporter question about Trump’s politicking for the honour, said through its history the committee has received thousands of letters advocating for specific candidates. <\/p>\n

The U.S. administration of Trump’s predecessor did not recognize Maduro’s 2024 election win, with then-President Joe Biden calling Gonz\u00e1lez the “true winner” of the vote. Gonz\u00e1les subsequently fled his country and was granted political asylum in Spain<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have grown even more fraught under Trump. <\/p>\n

The U.S. Treasury Department increased its award for information leading to Maduro’s arrest to $50 million US. More controversially over the past six weeks, the U.S. has used its military to launch deadly strikes on boats it says are being used by Venezuelan drug cartels to transport drugs to the U.S., with what the Trump administration says is the support of the Maduro regime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado, a Venezuelan opposition leader, it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-202495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}