Anti-authoritarian Venezuelan politician beats Trump to the Nobel Peace Prize

President Donald Trump, whose administration recently renamed the US Department of Defense to the ‘Department of War’, has failed in his bid for a Nobel Peace Prize, with winner Maria Corina Machado announced instead.

On Friday (10 October) in Oslo, the Peace Prize, which honours efforts across arms control and disarmament, peace negotiation, democracy and human rights, as well as work aimed at creating a better organised, more peaceful world, was awarded to Venezuela’s Machado.

Maria Corina Machado was recognised “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 Norwegian Nobel Committee citation said.

The Venezuelan opposition leader is currently in hiding after being barred last year by Venezuela’s courts from running for president against Nicolás Maduro, who has ruled the country since 2013.

“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee added in its citation. 

Machado’s win will come as a disappointment to Trump, who has had his sights set on the accolade since his return to office in January. 

Trump, a longtime critic of Maduro, shared multiple articles on Truth Social claiming he deserved to win the award for brokering a peace deal between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, and for his efforts to combat “drug cartels, human trafficking, and illegal immigration.”

One opinion piece, reposted by Trump from The Washington Post, argued that he deserved the prize, stating that “there has arguably never been an American president who deserved it more.”

The Novel Peace Prize, worth $1.2 million, (£902,000), will be presented at a ceremony on 10 December on the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

Despite Trump’s belief that he should’ve won the prize, experts on the award have said, as per Reuters, that Trump was very unlikely to win as his policies were seen as dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.

Regarding the LGBTQ+ community, Trump has acted against human rights and undermined the goal of a “more peaceful world”. 

Since his return to office in January, Trump has signed dozens of executive orders aimed at undoing the work of the previous administration and fulfilling his campaign promises.

Among the orders, Trump has declared the official policy of the United States is that there are “only two sexes”, banned trans people from serving in the military and restricted gender-affirming healthcare for trans people under the age 19, as well as eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes across the government and in the armed services.

Who is Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado? 

María Corina Machado, 58, is an activist who has led the battle for democracy in the face of ever-expanding authoritarianism in Venezuela. She leads the Vente Venezuela opposition party.

Following a brief career in business after studying engineering and finance, Machado established the Atenea Foundation in 1992, which works to benefit street children in Caracas.

A decade later, she co-founded Súmate, an organization that promotes free and fair elections and conducts training and election monitoring.

In 2010, she was elected to the National Assembly, but the regime expelled her from office in 2014. In 2017, she helped found the Soy Venezuela alliance, which unites pro-democracy forces in the country across political divides.

Machado announced her candidacy for president in 2024 but was blocked from running, after which she supported the opposition’s alternative candidate, Edmundo González Urrutia. She now lives in hiding.

Despite the opposition systematically documenting that it was the true winner of the election, the regime declared victory, consolidating its power.

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