Who is María Corina Machado? All about the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner 

Venezuelan politician and industrial engineer María Corina Machado was announced as the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize on October 10, 2025. The Norwegian Nobel Committee shared the news on social media. Machado has been selected 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.”

María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize win comes a month after she spoke to Elle while in hiding in a September 15 article titled “This Is a Struggle Between Good and Bad.” In it, she discussed why she wasn’t “giving up” despite being underground for 14 months.

Before that, she was the opposition leader during Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's reign. Maduro won for the third term in the presidential election last year.

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Exploring the life and career of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, María Corina Machado

María Corina Machado, 58, was born on October 7, 1967, in Caracas, Venezuela, to a psychologist mother and a businessman father, who died in 2023. She joined politics in 2002 and has been a member and National Coordinator of Vente Venezuela, or the opposition party of the country, since 2012.

Before that, Machado founded the vote-monitoring organization Súmate, or “Join in” in Spanish, and served on the Unitary Platform Democratic Unity Roundtable Súmate from 2001 to 2010. She was also a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela between 2011 and 2014.

María has a BS degree in industrial engineering from Andres Bello Catholic University, followed by an MS from the Institute of Advanced Studies of Administration. During her early career, she worked for a steel company her father managed, according to Elle.

Later, she graduated from Yale University’s Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program in 2009 and ran for Congress the following year.

Machado has been a prominent figure in the protest against the Maduro administration since 2014. Before that, she denounced former President Hugo Chavez. In 2023, she won the opposition primary election by 92 percent vote to run in the 2024 presidential election.

However, that same year, María was barred from running in the election, reportedly by the Comptroller General, a ruling purportedly backed by the Venezuelan Supreme Court of Justice.

María, who is the pioneer of democracy and human rights in Venezuela, went into hiding in August 2024, a month after violence broke out in the streets. She has cited that she feared for her life and freedom under the current government and decided to “protect” herself.

According to the September 2025 Elle interview, María's husband, sisters, and mother fled Venezuela. So did two of her children, Henrique and Ricardo. Her eldest, Ana Corina, insisted on staying behind to be by her mother's side as her circle tightened.

In December 2019, Machado and her three kids celebrated Christmas together. Back then, Ana Corina, who now lives in New York, shared an image on Instagram. That year in October, she also celebrated her mother’s birthday, calling her “the bravest person I know.”

“You are… a brilliant, honest, and unstoppable woman. What a privilege to have you as my role model, my friend, and my mum. Happy birthday @mariacorinamachado,” the caption read alongside a picture of the mother-daughter duo.

Ana Corina reportedly has a degree from Harvard Business School as well as the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering. Meanwhile, her brothers, Roberto and Henrique, reportedly live in the USA and Colombia, respectively.

Today, María Corina Machado continues to fight for Venezuela’s democracy despite being publicly threatened and attacked in the past, alongside being accused of treason. She uses social media, including her 8.6 million-strong Instagram, to express her political viewpoints.

María Corina Machado told Elle last month:

“I am in Venezuela. I have always been in Venezuela.”

However, she revealed that her family members have moved overseas. Often referred to as the Venezuelan Iron Lady, María Corina Machado further told the outlet:

“You cannot keep on complaining about politics and politicians if you don’t give it a shot.”

Machado explained that while she grew up with a “sense of responsibility” toward her country, she thought she would serve it by “running a business” and not by “going into politics.” She credited her family for developing a “consciousness for giving.”

In 2018, María Corina Machado was chosen as one of the BBC’s 100 Women. Earlier this year, she was named among TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people.

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As Machado continues to remain in hiding, it is noteworthy that she has made two public appearances since then: at a rally in August 2024 and in January 2025, the day before Maduro’s inaugural ceremony. She is known by the phrase, “hasta el final” or “until the end.”