Venezuelan Maria wins 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for defying ‘dictatorship’

In a year when democracy itself feels under siege across continents, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader who has spent more than two decades challenging her country’s 'authoritarian' regime. Announcing the award in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee described Machado as “a brave and committed champion of peace — a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.” She is being honoured 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.” For many Venezuelans, Machado has long symbolised a rare moral clarity in a country suffocated by political...