The awarding of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, received by her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado in Oslo, became a testament to Venezuelan resistance and a reflection on the universal meaning of freedom.
In her speech, read by her daughter, Machado situated the story within the collective journey of her country.
“I have come to tell you a story, the story of a people and their long march towards freedom. That march brings me here today, as one voice among millions of Venezuelans who have risen up once again to claim the destiny that has always belonged to them,” María Corina Machado stated in her remarks.
The opposition leader reconstructed Venezuelan identity based on its history and the diversity of its roots.
“Venezuela was born of audacity, shaped by a fusion of peoples and cultures. From Spain we inherited a language, a faith and a culture that became intertwined with our ancestral indigenous and African roots,” Machado recalled, underscoring the foundational character of the first republican constitution in the Hispanic world in 1811.
“There we affirmed a radical idea: that every human being possesses sovereign dignity. That constitution enshrined citizenship, individual rights, religious freedom, and the separation of powers,” he said.
The speech touched on the moments of prosperity and openness that defined the country in the 20th century.
“In times of peace, we transformed that sudden wealth into an engine of knowledge and imagination. With the ingenuity of our scientists, we eradicated diseases, founded world-renowned universities, museums, and concert halls, and sent thousands of young Venezuelans to study abroad, trusting that their free minds would return to transform the country,” Machado recounted.
He also highlighted Venezuela's role as a refuge.
“We opened our arms to migrants and exiles from all corners of the world: Spaniards fleeing the civil war, Italians and Portuguese escaping poverty and dictatorships, Jews leaving the Holocaust behind, Chileans, Argentinians, and Uruguayans fleeing military regimes, Cubans who repudiated communism, and entire families from Colombia, Lebanon, and Syria seeking peace. We gave them homes, schools, and security, and they all became Venezuelans.”
The opposition leader warned about the risks of democratic complacency and the concentration of power.
“Even the strongest democracy weakens when its citizens forget that freedom is not something we should wait for, but something we must bring to life. It is a personal, conscious decision, the daily practice of which shapes a civic ethic that must be renewed every day,” he said.
Machado identified the beginning of the institutional deterioration.
"The leader of a military coup against democracy was elected president, and many thought that charisma could replace the rule of law."
The description of the Venezuelan crisis was direct and detailed.
“Since 1999, the regime has been dismantling our democracy: it violated the Constitution, falsified our history, corrupted the Armed Forces, purged independent judges, censored the press, manipulated elections, persecuted dissent, and devastated our biodiversity,” Machado denounced.
The magnitude of the economic and social collapse was reflected in figures.
“The economy collapsed by more than eighty percent, poverty exceeded eighty-six percent, and nine million Venezuelans were forced to flee. These are not just numbers; they are open wounds.”
Machado recounted how repression and social division became tools of the regime.
“The regime set out to divide us: by our ideas, by race, by origin, by our way of life. They wanted Venezuelans to distrust one another, to be silent, to see each other as enemies. They suffocated us, imprisoned us, killed us, and forced us into exile,” he stated.
The reconstruction of hope emerged from an act of civic rebellion.
“Against all odds, we decided to hold a primary election, an unlikely act of rebellion. We decided to trust the people,” Machado explained. Forced migration, far from fragmenting society, united it.
“Forced migration, which sought to fracture us, ended up uniting us around a sacred purpose: to reunite our families in our land”.
The narrative focused on specific episodes that illustrated everyday resistance.
“In May 2023, during a campaign event in the town of Nirgua, a teacher named Carmen approached me. She told me she had seen her street leader there, a regime operative who decides, house by house, who receives a bag of food and who is punished with hunger. Surprised, Carmen asked her, ‘What are you doing here?’ And the woman replied, ‘My only son, who went to Peru, asked me to come today. He told me that if you win, he will return. Tell me what I have to do.’ That day, love triumphed over fear,” Machado recounted.
The organization of the primary elections and the subsequent presidential election were described as a collective feat. “For over a year, we had been building the infrastructure to do it: 600,000 volunteers at 30,000 polling places, QR code scanning apps, digital platforms, and call centers operating from the diaspora. We deployed scanners, Starlink antennas, and computers hidden in fruit trucks to reach the most remote corners of the country. Technology became a tool for freedom,” Machado explained.
The day of the presidential election, July 28, 2024, marked a turning point.
“Edmundo González won with sixty-seven percent of the vote in every state, city, and town. All the tally sheets told the same story. In a matter of hours, we were able to digitize them and publish them on a website so that the whole world could see them,” Machado stated.
The regime's reaction was immediate: “The dictatorship responded with terror. Two thousand five hundred people were kidnapped, disappeared, or tortured. Their homes were marked, and entire families were taken hostage. Priests, teachers, nurses, students: all persecuted for sharing an electoral record. Crimes against humanity, documented by the United Nations; state terrorism, used to bury the will of the people.”
The repression reached extreme levels: “More than 220 teenagers arrested after the elections were electrocuted, beaten, and suffocated until they were forced to tell the lie the regime needed to spread: that I had paid them to protest. Women and teenagers imprisoned today are still subjected to sexual slavery, forced to endure abuse in exchange for a family visit, a meal, or the simple right to bathe,” Machado denounced.
Despite the persecution, the resistance did not stop. “During these sixteen months underground, we have built new networks of civic pressure and disciplined disobedience, preparing ourselves for an orderly transition to democracy,” Machado affirmed.
The significance of the Nobel Peace Prize was interpreted as a global reminder: “This prize has a profound meaning: it reminds the world that democracy is essential for peace. And most importantly, the main lesson that Venezuelans can share with the world is the one forged through this long and difficult journey: if we want to have democracy, we must be willing to fight for freedom,” he stated. And he emphasized: “Freedom is won every day, to the extent that we are willing to fight for it.”
Machado concluded with a vision for the future and a tribute to those who sustained the struggle: “Venezuela will breathe again. We will open the prison doors and see the sun rise on thousands of innocent people who were unjustly imprisoned, finally embraced by those who never stopped fighting for them. We will see grandmothers sit their grandchildren on their laps to tell them stories, not of distant heroes, but of the courage of their own parents.”
We will see our students debate with passion, without fear, their voices finally free. We will hug again, fall in love, and hear our streets filled with laughter and music. All the simple joys that the world takes for granted will be ours again.
The recognition was dedicated to the anonymous protagonists of the resistance: “To the millions of anonymous Venezuelans who risked their homes, their families, and their lives for love. That same love from which peace is born, the love that sustained us when all seemed lost, and that today unites us and guides us toward freedom. This honor belongs to them. This day belongs to them. The future belongs to them,” proclaimed María Corina Machado in Oslo.
