Overview

• The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the 2025 Peace Prize for opposition leader María Corina Machado, who remains in hiding inside Venezuela.
• Machado was barred from the 2024 presidential ballot and campaigned for Edmundo González Urrutia, as the opposition claims he won a contested vote that authorities have not fully published, citing a cyberattack.
• European leaders and institutions, including Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, along with the UN human rights office, praised the award.
• The White House criticized the choice, with communications director Steven Cheung saying the committee put politics before peace.
• Machado reacted by saying she was in shock, and reporting notes she is the first Venezuelan to receive a Nobel Prize and had previously won the 2024 Sakharov Prize.