India, Oct. 10 -- Maria Corina Machado, Venezuela's leading opposition figure, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2025 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."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee described her as "a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness" and praised her as one of Latin America's most extraordinary examples of courage.

Nobel Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydness said Machado "meets all the criteria laid out by Alfred Nobel" and added that she "embodies hope of a future where citizens' rights are protected."

Machado, 58, has been in hiding since August 2024...