14ymedio, Yoani Sánchez, 10 October 2025 (delayed translation) — Friday could not have started better. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded opposition leader María Corina Machado the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize “for her tireless work promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people.” The recognition puts the spotlight on Latin America, where three long-standing authoritarian regimes—in Caracas, Havana, and Managua—had come to believe that impunity and international silence would allow them to control their nations until the end of time.
In several government palaces, today’s coffee must be tasting much more bitter. The delay in the reactions of Nicolás Maduro and the Castro regime, who have not commented as of this writing, betrays the surprise they have felt at the announcement. Perplexed and annoyed, the spokespersons for both authoritarian regimes also seem to have frozen, waiting for their superiors to dictate the script they should follow in their statements. No wonder. Machado’s Nobel Prize is like salt in the wounds for all of them.
At just 58, the Venezuelan opposition leader has a long road ahead to do much for her country and the entire continent.
At just 58, the Venezuelan opposition leader has a long road ahead of her, and with the renewed prestige this award brings, she can do much for her country and the entire continent. Not only is the democratic opening in Venezuela ahead of her, which will inevitably come despite Maduro’s intentions, but she can also help drive political change in other countries in the region. For a long time the cause of peoples subjugated by totalitarian regimes, supposedly leftist and wrapped in a rhetoric “of the humble and for the humble,” has merited a boost. What happened this Friday is that consecration. The plight of more than 40 million people, under the thumb of these three satrapies, will once again receive the attention it deserves.
But this is, especially, a personal gratification. One does not reach the position Machado holds today without suffering personal losses, harsh emotional trials, successive pressures to go into exile, and an intense boycott of her political career. An intense campaign of reputational destruction has been launched against her, attempting to paint her as a terrorist who called for social confrontation. Her actions before, during, and after the elections more than a year ago shattered the entire image that official Venezuelan propaganda tried to plaster on the minds of voters and the international media. Serene, firm, and with constant calls for calm and peaceful action, the Venezuelan established herself as a leader of nonviolence.
Perseverance has been her greatest virtue. While many grew weary along the way, the opposition leader continued her activism. When exile knocked on the door of so many, she stayed in her country. While the world looked the other way and Miraflores bathed in petrodollars, the industrial engineer never lost hope that Chavismo would not last forever. Her Nobel Prize is not just a medal of gleaming metal; it is an award forged in tenacity. The perseverance of María Corina Machado is a breath of hope for all of us who live under the long night of a dictatorship.
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Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on DW.
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