(FILES) Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado waves a national flag during a protest called by the opposition on the eve of the presidential inauguration, in Caracas on January 9, 2025. Venezuela opposition leader Maria Corina Machado wins the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on October 10, 2025. (Photo by Juan BARRETO / AFP)
OSLO, NORWAY (AP): Opposition activist María Corina Machado of Venezuela has won the Nobel Peace Prize on Firday (Oct 10).
The former opposition presidential candidate in Venezuela was lauded for being a "key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided - an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government," said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee.
There had earlier been persistent speculation ahead of the announcement about the possibility of the prize going to US President Donald Trump, fueled in part by the president himself, amplified by this week's approval of his plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
Last year's award went to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of Japanese atomic bombing survivors who have worked for decades to maintain a taboo around the use of nuclear weapons.
The peace prize is the only one of the annual Nobel prizes to be awarded in Oslo, Norway.
Four of the other prizes have already been awarded in the Swedish capital, Stockholm this week - in medicine on Monday (Oct 6), physics on Tuesday (Oct 7), chemistry on Wednesday (Oct 8) and literature on Thursday (Oct 9). The winner of the prize in economics will be announced on Monday (Oct 13).
