Nobel Peace Prize 2025 goes to Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela

US President Donald Trump fails to impress Noble Committee.

STC NEWS MONITORING DESK
SRINAGAR, OCTOBER 10 (STC): Even as a global hype was created around US President Donald Trump as strong contender for this year’s Noble Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday decided to award the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Maria Corina Machado.
Maria Corina Machado won the award 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.”
According to the reports, the winner announcement was made on Friday in Oslo, marking a pinnacle of Nobel Week. The prestigious award, presented by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, has drawn 338 nominations this year — including 244 individuals and 94 organisations.
The committee chose to focus on Venezuela at this time, in a year dominated by US President Donald Trump’s repeated public statements that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, reports said.
Venezuela’s opposition leader, Machado, 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 Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee.
The official announcement was delivered by Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, at the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
It’s worth mentioning that the Norwegian Nobel Committee consists of five members: human rights advocate Jørgen Watne Frydnes, foreign policy scholar Asle Toje, former Acting Prime Minister Anne Enger, former Minister of Education Kristin Clemet, and former Secretary of Foreign Affairs Gry Larsen.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump missed out despite an aggressive push for a Nobel Prize. This year’s prize has already sparked intense speculation, with U.S. President Donald Trump continually lobbying for the award. Ahead of the announcement, he also emerged as a frontrunner, following public declarations that he deserves it and calls to Norwegian officials.
The speculation was intensified with a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and a possible peace deal.
It’s notable that several countries, including Israel, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Thailand, and Cambodia, are reported to have nominated Trump, crediting him with mediating several long-standing conflicts.
The US President himself has repeatedly made his case for the Peace Prize, claiming to have brokered peace in numerous regions.
“I don’t know what they’re going to do, really, but I know this: that nobody in history has solved eight wars in a period of nine months, and I’ve stopped eight wars,” he said. “So that’s never happened before, but they’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine. I know this: I didn’t do it for that. I did it because I saved a lot of lives.”

(Inputs from Hindustan Times / Straight Talk Communications)