Not Trump. Venezuela's opposition leader receives Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize in 2025 was awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. The announcement was published on the website of the Nobel organization.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee characterized the woman as a "brave and committed champion of peace" who "keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness."

"She is receiving the 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 publication says.

Machado began her political career in 2002, co-founding the election observation organization Súmate, and served as a member of the Venezuelan parliament in 2011-2014.

The politician has been a member of the opposition movement for many years. Thus, during the of the 2024 elections the Venezuelan regime blocked her candidacy for the presidency. Machado then supported Edmundo González Urrutia, a representative of another party, in the election, and opposition supporters mobilized to observe the election.

"The efforts of the collective opposition, both before and during the election, were innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic. The opposition received international support when its leaders publicised the vote counts that had been collected from the country’s election districts, showing that the opposition had won by a clear margin. But the regime refused to accept the election result, and clung to power," the Committee noted.

They also emphasized that over the past year, the politician was forced to live in hiding, but despite serious threats to her life, she remained in the country – and this choice "inspired millions of people."

Earlier, US president Donald Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to win the Nobel Peace Prize, citing his role in resolving seven conflicts in the world.

On October 9, on the eve of the announcement of the 2025 winner, the head of the US said that he ended wars not for a Nobel Prize but to save lives.

UPDATED. White House Communications Director Stephen Chun responded to the fact that the US president did not receive the Nobel Prize.

"President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will," the official said.

He believes that the Nobel Committee proved by its decision that "they place politics over peace."

• The last meeting of the Committee that awards the peace prize took place before an agreement was reached between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas under pressure from Trump.
• The US president regularly says that he ended seven wars. However, it should be noted that of these, for example, the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict was not in a hot phase, and the confrontation between India and Pakistan, mediated by the Trump, only managed to achieve a ceasefire, and not a final peace agreement.