Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she was"in shock" to learn that she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, according to a video sent by her press team to the AFP news agency.

Machado, 58, went into hiding last year shortly after denouncing fraud in Nicolás Maduro's reelection on July 28, 2024.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it awarded the prize to the leader for her"tireless" defense of Venezuelan democracy in the face of the "brutal" government of Nicolás Maduro.

"I'm in shock!" Machado can be heard saying to Edmundo González Urrutia in a phone call."What is this thing? I can't believe it," the leader insisted in the conversation.

González Urrutia replaced Machado as the candidate in the last presidential election after she was disqualified from running. The politician nevertheless spearheaded the campaign, holding rallies across the country.

"We're in shock with joy," says González, who also went into exile shortly after the elections. In the video, he can be seen on his phone talking to Machado, who doesn't appear in the video.

The political opposition maintains that Maduro stole the election and published copies of the voting machine records on a website to prove González's victory. The Chavistas dismiss these documents.

Former congresswoman and opposition leader Maria Corina Machado holds the Venezuelan flag in front of the Attorney General's Office in Caracas, Venezuela, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

Vente Venezuela, the political movement of María Corina Machado, considers the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the opposition leader to be an"encouragement" that "recognizes and exalts" the struggle of all democrats and of an entire people for freedom.

"It's an indescribable feeling. It's recognition of years of work by María Corina and, obviously, a team. And, in the end, I think it's recognition of the struggle of a people," José Antonio Vega, coordinator of Vente Venezuela and the opposition coalition Command with Venezuela in Spain, told EFE.

It is also an"award that honors the struggle of all democrats, of all citizens who fight, obviously, for a world at peace," he added.

"In Venezuela, we are fighting against a regime that, years ago, declared war on its citizens (and the Western world), and we have had to confront it," he explained."And the fight is precisely that, to rescue peace, tranquility, since nearly nine million Venezuelans have had to emigrate to achieve the peace that was denied to us there."

For his part, Venezuelan opposition leader Leopoldo López said this Friday that the Nobel Prize awarded to Machado is also a recognition of"a people determined to change." "Congratulations to Maria Corina Machado for this well-deserved recognition of your courage and tireless fight for democracy, freedom and human rights," said López, who is exiled in the United States.

López, who led the opposition to then-President Hugo Chávez in 2008, was an opponent of Nicolás Maduro and imprisoned in 2018 following protests against the Chavista government.

Following the news, he noted that this award"also honors the strength of a people determined to change, who will stop nothing and no one until they achieve a free and democratic Venezuela."