OSLO: The Nobel Committee has announced Maria Corina Machado as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner for promoting democratic rights in Venezuela.
The announcement has come as a major disappointment for US President Donald Trump who has been advocating for winning the prestigious Peace Prize for 2025, claiming he has ended at least “seven wars.”.
A total of 338 nominations were submitted for the award, including 244 individuals and 94 organisations.
“The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a brave and dedicated advocate of peace, a woman who has kept the flame of democracy alive amid rising darkness, the committee said while announcing Maria Corina Machado’s win.
The committee described Machado, leader of Venezuela’s Democratic Forces, as one of the most remarkable examples of civilian courage in Latin America.
In recent years, she has emerged as a unifying figure within a once deeply divided opposition, bringing together political forces around the shared demand for free and representative elections, the statement added.
“She is being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her relentless efforts to promote democratic rights in Venezuela and her struggle for a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” the committee said in its announcement.
President Donald Trump had actively campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he has been nominated both this year and in previous years, though he has never won.
“I deserve it, but they would never give it to me,” he remarked in February at the White House alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Netanyahu is among several figures who have nominated Trump for the award this year. The Pakistani government also nominated him for helping to ease tensions with India, while Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet credited him for mediating a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, among other nominations.
