Know About Venezuelan Leader Maria Corina Machado, Who Won Nobel Peace Prize 2025
The Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize 2025 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. The Swedish Academy announced her name on Friday, October 10, 2025. The announcement was made by the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes.
Ms Machado was born on October 7, 1967, in Caracas, Venezuela. She is the eldest daughter of psychologist Corina Parisca and businessman Henriques Machado Zuloaga.
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Maria holds a degree in industrial engineering from Andrés Bello Catholic University and a master’s in finance from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (IESA). She is an industrial engineer and human rights advocate.
She later rose to the national coordination of Vente Venezuela, a liberal political party she founded in 2013. Machado has been a critic of Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, the regimes, and advocated democracy, human rights, and the rule of law in Venezuela.
In 2011, Machado was elected to the National Assembly and is known for her strong stand against government abuses and corruption. In 2014, she was expelled from the National Assembly and charged with criminal investigations by the government.
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In 2023, Machado secured a decisive victory with 92 percent of the votes in opposition primaries. However, she was disqualified from running in the 2024 presidential election by the Venezuelan government.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner had already won other accolades, including the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought and the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize.
