In October 2025, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a global honor given to people who have worked to promote peace, human rights, and democratic freedoms. Machado’s win was about her peaceful fight for democracy in Venezuela, even when it put her life at risk.
🌎 Standing Up for Democracy and Peace
The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Machado “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.” That means she was recognized for trying to help her country find peace through democratic change, not violence.
Machado has spent more than 20 years defending democratic rights in Venezuela – pushing for fair elections, freedom of speech, and respect for human rights in a country where those things have often been under attack.
✊ Leading Through Peaceful Action
Machado helped start Súmate, a civic group that trains volunteers to monitor elections, promote transparency, and make sure votes are counted fairly. She also served in the National Assembly, speaking out against corruption and government oppression.
Even when she was barred from running for president in 2024, she continued to organize opposition leaders and support peaceful civic participation instead of violence. That commitment to peaceful change is a big part of why she was honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.
🧭 Her Own Words About the Prize
Machado wasn’t able to attend the Nobel ceremony in Norway because she has faced threats to her safety, but her speech was read by her daughter in Oslo. In that speech, she said the award wasn’t just for her – it was for “all Venezuelans who risked their lives” for freedom and democracy.
She described the struggle in Venezuela by pointing out how the government once tried to divide people by ideas, race, origin, and way of life, trying to make people see each other as enemies. She said that even when hope collapsed, people kept fighting because they believed in change.
In her speech she said something powerful: “Peace is an act of love, and that love has already set our future in motion.”
📍 A Prize for the Venezuelan People
Machado also made it clear that she sees the Nobel Peace Prize as something that belongs to all Venezuelans fighting for freedom, not just herself. In an audio message published on the Nobel website, she said the prize was a measure of what it means to the Venezuelan people, and that she hoped to soon return home and embrace her family and the people she’s been fighting alongside.
She said, “Since this is a prize for all Venezuelans, I believe that it will be received by them.”
🕊️ A Nobel Peace Prize Rooted in Nonviolence
In short, María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize because she has been a persistent, peaceful voice for democratic rights in Venezuela. Her work – organizing, speaking out, and uniting people without turning to violence – showed the world that you can fight for change through civic action and human rights, not force.
This award highlights that peace isn’t just about stopping wars – it’s also about giving people the freedom to choose their own leaders, speak freely, and live with dignity.
Even when people seem divided, there’s so much we share. Me We Too is about finding those connections, noticing our similarities, and remembering that we have more in common than we sometimes think.
