Venezuelan Opposition Leader Awarded Nobel Peace Prize 

By Kristóf Somogyi, 2028

Published 10/24/2025

As you probably know, the Nobel Peace Prize is an annual award given to a person or group who has done the most or best work for the pursuit of peace. It is commonly considered to be the most prestigious award in the world, and the choice of who it’s awarded to is often reflective of what the world’s current major issues are. So, who was awarded this year? The recipient of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician known for her opposition to Nicolás Maduro, the President of Venezuela, widely considered a dictator. Machado was the leading candidate in last year’s Venezuelan presidential election, but she was banned by the government from running, an act that was widely condemned. The replacement candidate for Machado’s platform was found to triumph Maduro in nearly all counts and research, but the Venezuelan government declared Maduro’s victory.

So how does the Nobel committee’s decision reflect the most important issues today? A key recent issue is the subversion of democracy and a resurgence of dictatorships and authoritarianism, most significantly with figures like Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and the aforementioned Maduro. Political suppression like the kind Machado faced is also growing more concerningly common, even in the United States with multiple instances of aggressive detention or deportation of perfectly legal immigrants who support specific causes like Palestinian solidarity. That being said, Machado appears to support President Trump in some regard, and dedicated the award to him through X. Machado is currently in hiding due to fear of persecution. However, this new prestige and acclaim she has suddenly won may very well be the key to overcoming Maduro’s reign and restoring democracy to Venezuela.