Syllabus:
GS-2: Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interests, Indian diaspora.
Context:
The Nobel Peace Prize 2025 has been awarded to Maria Corina Machado 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.
Maria Corina Machado
- She is a prominent politician and the leader of the opposition party Vente Venezuela.
- She is also known as the “Iron Lady” in Venezuela.
- She campaigns for transparent democracy, advocates for liberal economic reforms, including the privatisation of state-owned enterprises such as PDVSA, Venezuela’s oil company.
- She supports the creation of welfare programmes aimed at aiding the country’s poorest.
- She is only the 20th woman out of 143 laureates awarded since the start of the prize in 1901.
- Organisation founded by her:
- Atenea Foundation: It was founded in 1992; this organization focuses on providing aid to orphaned and street children in Caracas.
- Sumate: It was co-founded in 2002; Sumate is a non-governmental civic organization dedicated to promoting and monitoring free and fair elections in Venezuela.
- Soy Venezuela: It was co-founded in 2017; this is an alliance that works to unite various pro-democracy forces across Venezuela.
- She was also recently featured in Time Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2025.
- In 2023, María Corina Machado won the opposition’s presidential primary by a large margin, making her the main challenger to Maduro in the 2024 election. However, in 2024, Venezuela’s Supreme Court upheld a ban that disqualified her from holding public office.