María Corina Machado awarded 2025 Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize committee has awarded the 2025 prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado for her tireless work promoting democratic rights in Venezuela. The honor arrives amid internal and external political tensions in the South American country. In Spain, the government remains silent, while the opposition celebrates it.
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday, October 10, to María Corina Machado, leader of the Venezuelan opposition against Nicolás Maduro's regime. The jury described her as the "leader of Venezuela's democratic forces" and a unifying figure in a previously divided opposition. Disqualified from the 2024 presidential elections, Machado backed Edmundo González Urrutia, who was declared the winner based on electoral acts presented by his team. However, Maduro proclaimed himself the victor without evidence, despite international repudiation and popular outrage. Machado, in hiding due to chavismo persecution, has sustained her commitment to citizen organization and a peaceful resolution.
The award goes beyond symbolism amid crisis: Venezuela faces internal authoritarianism and external pressures, such as recent U.S. military maneuvers near its territory, including combat aircraft deployment and destruction of boats linked to narcotraffic, resulting in dozens of deaths. The Trump administration, which hoped for the prize for its president, expressed disappointment.
In Spain, Pedro Sánchez's government has not congratulated Machado. Sánchez posted on X about mental health, artificial intelligence, and a meeting with the Socialist International, without mentioning the Nobel. Minister Félix Bolaños dodged evaluating the decision, stating that "Spain is always a country committed to human rights". Defense Minister Margarita Robles deflected the question to peace in Gaza and Ukraine. Vice President María Jesús Montero noted that Trump "will be somewhat disappointed".
PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo criticized Sánchez's silence: "The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize not only honors a personal feat. It sends a decisive message to the world: the path to peace is democratic firmness, not complicity with tyranny". Madrid President Isabel Díaz Ayuso celebrated: "What great joy! Venezuela will soon have a president, and she is a Nobel Peace Prize winner". Basque lehendakari Imanol Pradales and Castilla-La Mancha President Emiliano García-Page also congratulated Machado for her work on democratic rights.
Internationally, Josep Borrell, former EU High Representative, congratulated her for her role in a "peaceful solution through democratic means". European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated the prize honors "all voices that refuse to be silenced in Venezuela and around the world". European Council President Antonio Costa praised her "firm commitment to democracy".
The Nobel is seen as an invitation to channel confrontation through political and diplomatic means, against military escalation, and support for a transition with institutional guarantees.