Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who on Friday won the Nobel Peace Prize, said she was confident the opposition would succeed in securing a peaceful transition to democracy in her country.
"We're not there yet. We're working very hard to achieve it, but I'm sure that we will prevail," she told Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Nobel Institute and secretary of the Nobel Committee, when he called to inform her that she had won the 2025 prize.
In a video of the call posted on X by the Nobel Foundation, Harpviken could be seen trying to hold back tears, his voice cracking as he broke the news to her, waking her in the middle of the night.
“Oh my god… I have no words.”
Listen to the emotional moment this year's laureate Maria Corina Machado finds out she has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Kristian Berg Harpviken, Director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, shared the news with her directly before it was… pic.twitter.com/OCUpNz752k
— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 10, 2025 "This is certainly the biggest recognition to our people that certainly deserve it," she said, adding: "I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this."
Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected in 2024 in an election numerous countries said was rigged, and which Machado was barred from despite enormous popularity in the polls.
The Nobel Committee honoured her "for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy."
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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