Maria Corina Machado wins after Trump lobbying campaign
In a video released by the Nobel Committee that showed Machado being told of the award by phone, she struggled for some moments to find the words to respond to the news.
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“Thank you so much. I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person,” she said.
“I certainly do not deserve this. Oh my God.”
Nobel Committee secretary Olav Njolstad replied: “I think both the movement and you deserve it.”
Asked on Thursday about his chances of winning the prize, Trump said he had ended eight wars including the conflict in Gaza but that he had not done so to win the award.
“They’ll have to do what they do. Whatever they do is fine,” he said of the Nobel Committee.
“I know this: I didn’t do it for that, I did it because I saved a lot of lives.”
The White House rebuked the Nobel committee after the award was revealed, saying Trump had made peace deals, ended wars and saved lives.
“He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” said White House spokesman Steven Cheung, a long-time aide to the president.
“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”
Machado, however, thanked Trump for his support for democracy in Venezuela.
“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy,” she wrote on X.
“I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
In choosing Machado, the Nobel Committee pushed back at Trump’s campaign for the prize but awarded the honour to a campaigner who shares Trump’s interest in replacing the autocrat who rules her country.
Machado became one of Venezuela’s most vocal opponents of Hugo Chavez during his presidency from 1999 until his death in 2013, and she kept this up when he was replaced by his vice president, Nicolas Maduro, who has ruled since 2013.
Democratic leaders including then US president Joe Biden condemned Maduro as a dictator when he used violence and electoral fraud to shut down the national assembly and deny the outcome of last year’s election.
Trump has intensified pressure on Maduro in recent days after sending warships, a submarine and F-35 stealth fighters to stop drug shipments from Venezuela to the US.
Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters at a protest against President Nicolas Maduro in Caraca.Credit: AP
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described Maduro as a “fugitive from American justice” because US authorities want to bring him to trial. The US has placed a $US50 million reward on his head so he can face charges over narcotics trafficking.
The Nobel Committee made no comment about Trump but emphasised Machado’s work in defending the principles of popular rule and the acceptance of democratic outcomes even when citizens disagreed.
“At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground,” it said.
In August, Trump made a surprise phone call to Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg, a former NATO secretary-general, and said he wanted the prize.
Maria Corina Machado holds up tally sheets during a protest against the re-election of President Nicolas Maduro.Credit: AP
Critics have disputed his claims about ending eight wars, noting, for instance, that war continues between Congo and Rwanda despite his claims about peace. India does not accept that Trump ended its recent conflict with Pakistan. However, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev jointly endorsed Trump for the prize in August for his role in ending their conflict.
While the award is decided by an independent committee of five at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, the members are elected by the Norwegian parliament and are connected by that process to the nation’s political leaders.
Frydnes, the current chair of the Nobel Committee, is a human rights advocate who has worked with Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) and other non-government groups.
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Last year’s award went to Nihon Hidankyo, a group of survivors of the nuclear bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
Previous recipients include Narges Mohammadi, an Iranian champion of equality and women’s rights and Ales Bialiatski, a human rights advocate from Belarus. In 2021, it went to journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia.
Wealthy Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who funded the prize, stipulated in his will that it should go to the person “who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses”.
When a journalist asked Frydnes on Friday in Oslo about the lobbying for this year’s prize, the Nobel Committee chair said the prize had seen many campaigns over its long history.
“We receive thousands and thousands of letters every year of people wanting to say what, for them, leads to peace,” he said.
“This committee sits in a room filled with the portraits of Nobel laureates, and that room is filled with both courage and integrity.
“So we base our decision on the work and the will of Alfred Nobel.”