María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician notorious for advocating american and z¿onist military intervention in her country, has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize – sparking global outrage.

“She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize 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,” said the Norwegian Nobel Committee while announcing the much-anticipated award.

The committee rebuffed US President Donald Trump despite his intense lobbying, but ended up giving it to someone who has aggressively supported and promoted the US “regime change” project in Caracas.

For many around the world, the decision underscores how Western governments continue to manipulate moral symbols to advance their nefarious political agendas.

Awarding a “Peace Prize” to a figure widely seen as a US-backed coup plotter and a supporter of zionist genocidal war on Gaza has once again exposed the Nobel Committee’s transformation into a geopolitical tool of the West — serving imperial interests rather than global peace, analysts warned.

They recalled how Machado, long embraced by Washington’s “regime-change” lobby, had previously written directly to Netanyahu — who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for genocidal war crimes in Gaza — pleading for his support in overthrowing Venezuela’s democratically elected president, Nicolás Maduro.

Her public dedication of the prize to Trump only reinforced the perception that the award was less a recognition of peace-building and more a celebration of subversion.From opposition leader to symbol of regime change

Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer, is currently living in hiding in Venezuela after being disqualified from contesting the 2024 presidential election.

The country’s Supreme Court upheld a 15-year ban against her, citing her direct support for US sanctions, involvement in large-scale corruption, and responsibility for massive financial losses suffered by Venezuela’s foreign assets — including the US-based oil refiner CITGO and the Colombia-based chemicals firm Monómeros.

According to the court’s findings, Machado played a role in the “corruption plot orchestrated by the usurper Juan Guaidó,” the opposition leader who once declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela with Washington’s patronage.

Guaidó’s rise was a textbook example of a foreign-orchestrated “regime change” project.

A relatively lesser-known opposition lawmaker, Guaidó rose to sudden prominence in January 2019 when he declared himself “interim president” of Venezuela, claiming that Maduro’s 2018 re-election was illegitimate.

Within hours, the US and its allies — including certain European nations — recognized him as the country’s leader, seized Venezuela’s overseas assets, and poured financial support into his faction.

The goal was to topple Maduro’s legitimate government through a mix of economic strangulation, political isolation, and internal destabilization.

Although dozens of Western governments initially backed Guaidó, he never gained control of the military or state institutions, and over time, his “interim government” lost both credibility and cohesion.

By late 2022, even parts of the opposition abandoned the experiment and formally dissolved the interim presidency, marking Guaidó’s ouster from his self-proclaimed post — an end to a foreign-engineered bid for power that had brought turmoil but failed to dislodge Maduro.

In 2023, Venezuelan judicial officials issued an arrest warrant against Guaido, charging the politician with multiple illegal activities, including treason, money laundering, impersonating public officials, and, above all, misappropriation of $19 billion of the resources of the PDVSA oil company and using money from the country’s state-owned oil company for his own financial benefit.

Following the collapse of Guaidó’s US-backed so-called “interim government,” Washington and the Venezuelan opposition quickly shifted their hopes to Machado, long known for aligning herself with foreign interests against the elected government in Caracas.Like Guaidó, who later fled to Miami, Machado built her profile through Western media promotion and US political endorsement, portraying herself as the new face of “democratic change.”

After Guaidó’s failure exposed the opposition’s dependence on foreign backing and internal corruption, Machado sought to rebrand that same movement — calling for more sanctions and international pressure on the Maduro government rather than reconciliation.

Her disqualification from the 2024 presidential race became a rallying cry abroad, yet inside Venezuela, many viewed her as the continuation of the same externally driven strategy that had deepened the Latin American country’s crisis.

In essence, Machado inherited Guaidó’s role as the latest figurehead of a Washington-orchestrated opposition, one that repeatedly undermined dialogue, invited economic punishment on its own people, and failed to win the trust of the Venezuelan majority that continued to back Maduro’s government.

After the 2024 presidential election, which Maduro won amid high turnout and strong support from working-class communities against Edmundo González Urrutia, the candidate Machado backed, she and her foreign-backed allies refused to accept the results, claiming fraud without credible proof.

She incited protests across the country that quickly turned violent, with opposition groups blocking roads, attacking public buildings, and clashing with security forces.

The government described these disturbances as part of a destabilization campaign orchestrated from abroad to delegitimize Venezuela’s democratic process and provoke chaos.

While authorities restored order, Maduro called for unity and peace, lashing out at Machado for trying to reignite the same failed regime-change strategy once led by Guaidó — this time through street violence rather than ballots.

More recently, Machado publicly supported the deployment of US warships to the southern Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug cartels — a move Caracas denounced as yet another act of aggression aimed at surrounding and intimidating Venezuela.After the Nobel Committee announced her as the 2025 Peace Prize laureate, Machado took to social media to dedicate her win to Trump, praising him for his “decisive support of our cause.”

Her statement drew sharp criticism, with many viewing her gesture as proof that the award was a reward for loyalty to Washington, not for service to global or regional peace.

Machado’s win crushed Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize dream, despite his lobbying efforts, and his administration denounced the decision to award it to her.

However, in his remarks on Friday evening, Trump said he spoke with Machado, adding that she was “very nice” in their call.

“The person who actually got the Nobel Prize called today, called me and said, ‘I’m accepting this in honor of you, because you really deserved it,’” the president said.

“I’ve been helping her along the way,” Trump added. “They need a lot of help in Venezuela, it’s a basic disaster.”

Trump’s comments laid bare what was known: that Machado’s Nobel is not a recognition of peace, but a symbolic victory in Washington’s long-running campaign to undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty.Machado’s Peace Prize: A gift to Washington

After the Nobel Committee announced her as the 2025 Peace Prize laureate, Machado took to social media to dedicate her win to Trump, praising him for his “decisive support of our cause.”

Her statement drew sharp criticism, with many viewing her gesture as proof that the award was a reward for loyalty to Washington, not for service to global or regional peace.

Machado’s win crushed Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize dream, despite his lobbying efforts, and his administration denounced the decision to award it to her.

However, in his remarks on Friday evening, Trump said he spoke with Machado, adding that she was “very nice” in their call.

“The person who actually got the Nobel Prize called today, called me and said, ‘I’m accepting this in honor of you, because you really deserved it,’” the president said.

“I’ve been helping her along the way,” Trump added. “They need a lot of help in Venezuela, it’s a basic disaster.”

Trump’s comments laid bare what was known: that Machado’s Nobel is not a recognition of peace, but a symbolic victory in Washington’s long-running campaign to undermine Venezuela’s sovereignty.

Global backlash

The Nobel Committee’s decision to award Machado sparked an immediate global backlash.

Activists, political commentators, politicians, and journalists flooded social media with posts denouncing the blatant politicization of the world’s once most prestigious award.

Many noted that the decision undermined the Nobel Committee’s credibility and exposed its deep entanglement with Western power structures.

Across digital platforms, users circulated evidence of Machado’s longstanding pro-Western agenda and her repeated calls for foreign intervention and war against Venezuela.

Tim Anderson, scholar-activist and Director of the Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies, condemned the award in a post on X, calling it a reward for a “CIA-backed coup plotter.”

“Reward for coup plotter. CIA-backed Venezuelan traitor Maria Corina Machado BEATS warmonger Trump got the tainted Norwegian #Nobel prize, amid fake rumors of her arrest,” he wrote.

Anderson also shared a photo of Machado shaking hands with former US President George W. Bush at the White House in May 2005, calling out her “tireless struggle” as a career built on enriching herself and selling her country’s assets to the US oligarchy.

Users also replugged a 2018 letter written by Machado to Netanyahu, in which she explicitly requested Israel’s assistance in toppling Venezuela’s elected government.

“In truth, her ‘peaceful transition’ meant foreign interference and regime change — the classic Western recipe for destroying sovereign nations under the banner of democracy,” independent outlet DD Geopolitics wrote on X, referencing the Nobel Committee’s statement justifying its decision.

Muhammad Shehada, a Gaza-based political analyst and writer, called Machado a “genocide supporter” for her alliance with Israel’s far-right Likud Party.

The full PressTV report