Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting democratic rights in her country and her struggle to achieve a transition to democracy, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
What is her background?
Maria Corina Machado, 58, was born in Caracas, Venezuela , on October 7, 1967. She is an industrial engineer by training, and her father was a prominent businessman in Venezuela's steel industry. Her upper-class roots have made her a target of criticism from Venezuela's governing socialist party.
When did she go into hiding?
Machado won a resounding victory in the opposition's primary election in 2023 and her rallies attracted large crowds, but a ban from holding public office prevented her from running for president against Nicolas Maduro in an election in 2024 and she went into hiding.
The country's electoral authority and top court say Maduro won the election, though they have never published detailed tallies. Machado emerged from hiding to make a brief appearance during a protest before Maduro's inauguration in Jan. She was briefly arrested and then freed.
Political awakening
In 2002, while working in a steel and rebar maker owned by her family, she founded a group called Sumate - initially focused on vote monitoring but which evolved into a key opposition group over time. In 2012, two years after her family's business was expropriated by the govt of Hugo Chavez, she was a candidate for the first time in an opposition primary to run against Chavez. In 2023, she embarked on a fresh presidential run, fuelled by threadbare campaign events, mostly in smaller towns but which propelled her to victory in the party's primary. Her campaign tour, undertaken with limited resources, brought her closer to her supporters even as a govt prohibition on her candidacy forced her party to pass the torch to ally Edmundo Gonzalez, a former diplomat and academic.
Closeness with comrades
Gonzalez, currently exiled in Madrid, shared a video on social media where he can be seen talking to Machado and celebrating her Nobel Prize. "I'm in shock. I can't believe this... My God!", Machado can be heard saying through her cell phone.
Backs Liberal eco reforms
Machado advocates for liberal economic reforms, including the privatisation of state-owned enterprises such as PDVSA , Venezuela's oil firm.
Collective struggle
"This is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society," Machado said in a phone call. Her political activism has come at a cost, leaving her isolated as nearly all her senior advisers have been detained or forced to leave Venezuela. Reuters
What is her background?
Maria Corina Machado, 58, was born in Caracas, Venezuela , on October 7, 1967. She is an industrial engineer by training, and her father was a prominent businessman in Venezuela's steel industry. Her upper-class roots have made her a target of criticism from Venezuela's governing socialist party.
When did she go into hiding?
Machado won a resounding victory in the opposition's primary election in 2023 and her rallies attracted large crowds, but a ban from holding public office prevented her from running for president against Nicolas Maduro in an election in 2024 and she went into hiding.
The country's electoral authority and top court say Maduro won the election, though they have never published detailed tallies. Machado emerged from hiding to make a brief appearance during a protest before Maduro's inauguration in Jan. She was briefly arrested and then freed.
Political awakening
In 2002, while working in a steel and rebar maker owned by her family, she founded a group called Sumate - initially focused on vote monitoring but which evolved into a key opposition group over time. In 2012, two years after her family's business was expropriated by the govt of Hugo Chavez, she was a candidate for the first time in an opposition primary to run against Chavez. In 2023, she embarked on a fresh presidential run, fuelled by threadbare campaign events, mostly in smaller towns but which propelled her to victory in the party's primary. Her campaign tour, undertaken with limited resources, brought her closer to her supporters even as a govt prohibition on her candidacy forced her party to pass the torch to ally Edmundo Gonzalez, a former diplomat and academic.
Closeness with comrades
Gonzalez, currently exiled in Madrid, shared a video on social media where he can be seen talking to Machado and celebrating her Nobel Prize. "I'm in shock. I can't believe this... My God!", Machado can be heard saying through her cell phone.
Backs Liberal eco reforms
Machado advocates for liberal economic reforms, including the privatisation of state-owned enterprises such as PDVSA , Venezuela's oil firm.
Collective struggle
"This is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society," Machado said in a phone call. Her political activism has come at a cost, leaving her isolated as nearly all her senior advisers have been detained or forced to leave Venezuela. Reuters
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