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The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s main opposition leader, dashing the hopes of US President Donald Trump.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday it had awarded the prize to Machado for “keeping the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness”.
The win comes despite Trump’s repeated insistence that he deserved to win the prize for resolving “eight wars”, most recently with his work on an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
Machado is in hiding in Venezuela following an election last year that was widely regarded as having been stolen by the incumbent leader, President Nicolás Maduro.
The Nobel Committee said it was recognising Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela, and for a struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
Asked about Trump’s persistent campaign to be awarded the prize, Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said: “In the long history of the Nobel Peace Prize, I think this committee have seen every type of campaign media attention.”
“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of all laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity,” he added.
Though the decision to award the prize to Machado defied a public campaign by Trump, it appeared aligned with the US president’s hostility towards Venezuela’s socialist president Maduro.
The country has been a recent focus for Trump, who has sharply increased the US naval presence near Venezuela and targeted what he said were drug-trafficking gangs as he seeks to increase pressure on Maduro.
The moves have fuelled speculation that the White House is pushing for regime change in the country, though Trump has said they are merely aimed at combating the drugs trade.
“We, Venezuelans, thank President Trump @POTUS and his administration for their firm and decisive action to dismantle the criminal and terrorist structure that is illegitimately holding onto power in our country,” Machado wrote on X in August, days after the US had doubled its reward for Maduro’s capture to $50mn.
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Maduro’s authoritarian regime declared victory in last year’s election but the opposition claimed that their candidate, Edmundo González — who stood in Machado’s place after she was barred from running — was the real winner by a margin of more than two to one, and provided thousands of polling station tally sheets as evidence.
The US also declared González the winner. Maduro responded by cracking down on dissent.
There has been nervousness in the Norwegian government about the consequences of not awarding the prize to Trump, after he called finance minister and former head of Nato Jens Stoltenberg to discuss it.
Norway has also been under pressure from some US senators close to Trump after its giant sovereign wealth fund sold out of Caterpillar, the American building equipment company, due to its activities in Israel.
Experts had said there was little chance of Trump receiving the prize, not least because it is formally awarded for actions in 2024, when he was not yet president again.
Some suggest that he may be a more likely candidate for next year if peace holds between Israel and Palestine, and especially if the US president is able to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine.
