Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize Winner Threatened With Arrest

Most Nobel Peace Prize winners walk onto the Oslo stage to applause. This year’s honouree, however, may face an arrest warrant instead. Venezuela’s government has declared that María Corina Machado will be a “fugitive” if she leaves the country to collect her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway on 10 December.

Tarik William Saab, a Venezuelan politician and lawyer, told AFP that Machado is wanted for “conspiracy, incitement of hatred and terrorism”.

Machado, Venezuela’s “Iron Lady,” won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called her “tireless work promoting democratic rights” and her push for a peaceful transition to democracy in the face of ever-expanding authoritarianism in Venezuela.

The committee described her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times”.

Machado has long accused President Nicolás Maduro’s government of criminalising dissent. She backed last year’s Opposition after she was barred from the 2024 presidential race. Her replacement on the ballot, Edmundo González, fled to Spain after the disputed election.

Since then, Machado has remained in hiding to avoid arrest.

Machado has not indicated whether she plans to attempt the trip.