María Corina Machado’s Fight to Free Venezuela | Bari Weiss

Congratulations are not usually in order for someone who has been forced into hiding, someone whose children are scattered across continents for their safety, someone whose supporters are sitting in prison cells for the crime of believing in democracy.

But my guest today, María Corina Machado, just won the Nobel Peace Prize—joining the ranks of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Dalai Lama, to name a few.

On Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded their 2025 Peace Price to the Venezuelan opposition leader for her tireless work “promoting democratic rights,” describing her as “a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.” She is Venezuela’s first-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Machado’s story, as Jonathan Jakubowicz wrote in The Free Press, “is a political thriller come to life. A 58-year old industrial engineer and former member of parliament, she spent two decades as the most relentless opponent of Hugo Chávez and his successor, Nicolás Maduro.”

That thriller came to a head on July 28, 2024, when Edmundo González, Machado’s stand-in candidate, swept Venezuela’s elections with over 90 percent of the vote. But Maduro, Venezuela’s longtime dictator, claimed victory anyway and seized power. Since then, Machado has been living in hiding, her location undisclosed even to most of her allies, as the regime has arrested hundreds of political prisoners and issued a warrant for her arrest.

Machado has been nicknamed Venezuela’s “Iron Lady,” the same moniker given to Margaret Thatcher, who happens to be her personal hero. She represents what may be the most significant challenge to authoritarian socialism in Latin America, and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have her here today.