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Born in 1967 in Caracas, she studied engineering and finance, and had a short career in business before founding the Atenea Foundation in 1992, which supported street children in the capital. She was elected to the country’s National Assembly in 2010, only to be expelled four years later on allegations her supporters said were trumped up.
She would have been the main opposition candidate challenging the president during the election of 2024, but was barred because of the allegations deemed by the United States, the European Union and others as politically fabricated.
The candidate she supported instead, Edmundo González, was widely recognized internationally as the winner of the vote. But Maduro claimed victory anyway, responding to demonstrations with “widespread human rights violations against protesters, bystanders, opposition leaders, and critics,” according to a report from Human Rights Watch.
González posted a video of himself calling and congratulating Machado, alongside a statement saying it was a “very well-deserved recognition for the long fight of a woman and of a whole people for our freedom and democracy.”
In August 2024, in the aftermath of that election, she went into hiding, saying she feared for her life under Maduro’s regime.
“The efforts of the collective opposition, both before and during the election, were innovative and brave, peaceful and democratic,” Frydnes said.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was awarding Machado the peace prize not just for her efforts in her own country, but also her role as a talisman for the embattled principle of democracy worldwide. Watchdogs have for years been charting that decline in what Sweden’s V-Dem Institute called “a truly global wave of autocratization” in this year’s annual report.
Frydnes lamented the world we live in, “where democracy is in retreat, where more and more authoritarian regimes are challenging norms and resorting to violence.” He said Venezuela’s “rigid hold on power and its repression of its population are not unique in the world.”
He went on to detail the global erosion of the rule of law, the silencing of the free media, the growing number of government critics imprisoned and more societies moving toward militarization.
“When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognize courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist,” Frydnes added. Democracy “depends on people who refuse to stay silent, who dare to step forward despite grave risk, and who remind us that freedom must never be taken for granted.”
The award means that Trump, one of the other favorites, did not get the accolade he has so craved for years.
Cheung, the White House communications director, said on X that Trump “will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives.” He said the president has “the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.”
The Nobel committee’s concerns about the weakening of democracy are relevant as anywhere in Trump’s America, according to scholars.
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Alexander Smith
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