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María Corina Machado

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María Corina Machado
Machado in January 2026
Member of the National Assembly
for Miranda
In office
5 January 2011 – 21 March 2014
Succeeded byRicardo Sánchez
Personal details
Born (1967-10-07) 7 October 1967 (age 58)
Caracas, Venezuela
Political partyVente Venezuela (2012–present)
Other political
affiliations		Unitary Platform
Democratic Unity Roundtable
Súmate (2001–2010)
Spouse(s)
Ricardo Sosa Branger
​
​
(m. 1990; div. 2001)​
Children3
EducationAndrés Bello Catholic University
Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración
AwardsNobel Peace Prize (2025)
Signature

María Corina Machado Parisca (born 7 October 1967) is a Venezuelan politician and industrial engineer. She was a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014. She is known as an opposition politician and critic of the Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro presidencies.

Machado was the founder and former leader of the Venezuelan volunteer civil organization Súmate. In 2018, she was listed as one of the women in the BBC series 100 Women.[1] She unsuccessfully ran for President of Venezuela in 2012 and 2024.

She supported an American military intervention to remove the Maduro government.[2] She openly thanked U.S. President Donald Trump for the 2026 U.S. strikes on Venezuela that removed Maduro from power.[3]

In 2025, Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition for dictatorship to democracy".[4]

Early political career

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During her early political career, Machado was a critic of President Hugo Chávez.[5]

Machado was a candidate in the 2012 presidential election but lost the opposition primary election to Henrique Capriles. During the 2014 Venezuelan protests, she was one of the lead figures in organizing protests against the Maduro government.[6]

2024 presidential election

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She was a pre-candidate for Vente Venezuela in the primary elections of the Unitary Platform of 2023, although on 30 June 2023 she was disqualified for fifteen years from running for office.[7] Her disqualification was confirmed by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela in January 2024.[8]

After winning the primary elections with 92% of the votes, Machado was named the opposition candidate for the 2024 presidential elections,[9] though she was replaced by Corina Yoris on 22 March 2024. Yoris was prevented from registering as a candidate and was temporarily replaced by Edmundo González Urrutia.

In August 2024, Machado announced that she had gone into hiding because of fears for her life and freedom under the authoritarian Maduro regime.[10]

2025 Nobel Peace Prize

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In October 2025, Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy".[11]

In December 2025, Machado escaped from Venezuela. She had been in hiding in the Caracas area. She and two other people left Caracas on December 8. In an open boat, they traveled to a fishing village on the coast of an island controlled by the Netherlands, Curaçao. The boat ride took some hours.[12][13]

From Curaçao she took a flight to a naval base in Maine, United States. She then traveled to Europe.[14] She was scheduled to get the Nobel Peace Prize during a ceremony on December 11, however she arrived later and her daughter accepted her prize on Machado's behalf.[15] Machado arrived to Oslo the following day.[16]

In January 2026, Machado offered to give her prize to the President of the United States Donald Trump for the military intervention in Venezuela since Trump openly spoke about wanting to win the Nobel Prize the year before.[17] The Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute, in response, said that the prize cannot be transferred to another person.[18] On 15 January, Machado gave her medal to Trump during a private meeting at the White House to thank him for removing Nicolás Maduro from power. Trump accepted the prize, but as of 16 January, has not said what he plans to do with it.[19] The Nobel Committee said again that while ownership of the physical award can change, the title does not; meaning Trump is not known a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.[20]

References

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  1. ↑ "BBC 100 Women 2018: Who is on the list?". BBC News. 19 November 2018. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  2. ↑ "Julie Turkewitz: Fear and Hope in Venezuela as U.S. Warships Lurk". The New York Times. 2025-09-28. Retrieved 2025-09-28.
  3. ↑ Matza, Max (2026-01-16). "Machado presents Trump with her Nobel award at White House meeting". www.bbc.com. Retrieved 2026-01-16.
  4. ↑ Nobel Peace Prize 2025
  5. ↑ Turkewitz, Julie; Herrera, Isayen; Fernandez, Adriana Loureiro (2024-07-24). "The 'Iron Lady' of Venezuela Threatens to Unseat Its Autocrat". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
  6. ↑ Kurmanaev, Anatoly (23 December 2014). "Venezuela Protests Drive Poor to Maduro as Death Toll Mounts". Business Week. Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
  7. ↑ Armas, Mayela; Sequera, Vivian (30 June 2023). "Venezuela opposition candidate Machado barred from holding office-gov't". Reuters. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  8. ↑ "Venezuela's Supreme Court disqualifies opposition leader from running for president". Le Monde.fr. AFP. 27 January 2024. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  9. ↑ Garcia Cano, Regina (26 October 2023). "María Corina Machado is winner of Venezuela opposition primary that the government has denounced". Associated Press. Retrieved 27 October 2023.
  10. ↑ Vipers, Gareth (10 October 2025). "Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Venezuelan Opposition Leader María Corina Machado". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  11. ↑ Manenkov, Kostya; Cano, Regina Garcia; Moulson, Geir (10 October 2025). "Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado wins the Nobel Peace Prize". AP News. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  12. ↑ Fouche, Gwladys; Solsvik, Terje; Little, Tom (11 December 2025) [9 December 2025]. "Nobel laureate Machado arrives in Oslo, hours after award ceremony". Reuters. Retrieved 15 December 2025.
  13. ↑ "Venezuela-US tensions spike in wake of seized tanker as Nobel winner vows change". Reuters. 12 December 2025. Retrieved 17 December 2025.
  14. ↑ Phillips, Tom (11 December 2025). "'Follow the path of exiles': María Corina Machado's US-aided escape from Venezuela". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  15. ↑ Keyton, David (10 December 2025). "Machado's daughter accepts Nobel Peace Prize in Venezuelan opposition leader's absence". AP News. Retrieved 10 December 2025.
  16. ↑ González, Antonio (11 December 2025). "La odisea secreta de Machado por mar y aire para abrazar el Nobel de la Paz: Curazao, EEUU y Noruega" [Machado's secret odyssey by sea and air to accept the Nobel Peace Prize: Curaçao, the USA, and Norway.] (in Latin American Spanish). BioBioChile (EFE). Retrieved 13 December 2025.
  17. ↑ "Venezuela's Machado says she would share Nobel Peace Prize with Trump". euronews. 2026-01-06. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  18. ↑ "A Nobel Prize cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred - Nobel Peace Prize". www.nobelpeaceprize.org. 2026-01-09. Retrieved 2026-01-11.
  19. ↑ Holland, Steve; Erickson, Bo; Slattery, Gram (2026-01-15). "Trump accepts Nobel medal from Venezuelan opposition leader Machado". Reuters.
  20. ↑ "Trump-Machado Nobel meet: Medal owners have changed in past, not the title". First Post. 2026-01-16. Retrieved 2026-01-16.

Other websites

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