The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced its decision in a ceremony in Oslo earlier today.

Jørgen Watne Frydnes: “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.”

In 2023, Machado launched a campaign to challenge incumbent President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela’s 2024 election. She was barred from running after the government accused her of corruption and cited her support for U.S. sanctions against Venezuela. Machado has vowed to privatize Venezuela’s state oil industry. She’s praised right-wing Latin American leaders, including Argentina’s Javier Milei.

In 2020, Machado’s opposition party, Vente Venezuela, signed a pact formalizing strategic ties with Israel’s Likud party led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Machado has said that, if elected, she’ll move Venezuela’s Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

We’ll have more on María Corina Machado later in the broadcast.