Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who has been banned from running for the presidency, campaigns for presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Thursday, May 2, 2024.
Ariana Cubillos/AP
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Ariana Cubillos/AP
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado received this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
In a statement Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Machado's tireless work to promote the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people is “one of the most outstanding examples of civic courage in Latin America in recent times.”
Machado has been one of the most staunch critics of the powerful United Socialist Party of Venezuela (UPVV) since it first came to power in the late 1990s.
Former Venezuelan National Assembly member Machado has been targeted, targeted by federal prosecutors, barred from running for office and forced into hiding by the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who succeeded PSUV founder Hugo Chavez in 2013.
“I trust the Venezuelan people and have no doubt that the result of our struggle will be the liberation of Venezuela. Maduro is completely isolated, weaker than ever. And our people want and need to know that I am here with them,” Machado told NPR's All Things Considered last year.
This is a developing story.
