The Nobel Committee in Oslo has awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado. It is an inspired choice.

For more than two decades, Machado has been one of the most courageous, consistent and articulate opponents of Venezuela’s barbaric Chavista regime. She has led the country’s democratic resistance against one of the most repressive dictatorships in the Americas. Standing firm against the autocratic system built up by Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, she has insisted on the democratic path — on voting, on citizenship, on hope.

In 2002, she founded Súmate, an organisation devoted to election monitoring and the defence of the vote, an act that led to criminal charges against her. She was elected to the National Assembly in 2010, until the Chavista majority expelled and disqualified her four years later for denouncing the regime’s abuses. Both Chávez and Maduro have sought to silence her through threats and defamation campaigns. Today, Machado lives in hiding, fully aware that her freedom — and perhaps her life — remain at risk.

“There are rare moments when the love of democracy cannot be defeated by weapons or torture,” Venezuelan intellectual Moisés Naím told me upon hearing the news of the award. “The Nobel confirms the legitimacy of María Corina’s leadership, both inside and outside Venezuela.”

Last year, after the most recent presidential election in Venezuela, in which Maduro managed to cling to power through massive fraud — documented by Machado and opposition candidate Edmundo González — I interviewed her.

I asked her then how she thought history would judge Chávez, a man she confronted publicly on several occasions, including one unforgettable moment in the National Assembly.

“It was the darkest period in Venezuela’s history,” she told me. “It has been a painful lesson in the value of freedom and human dignity. Today, Venezuelans cherish liberty as never before — the ability to live in our own country, to keep our families together. It has been a deeply painful lesson.”

Today, Venezuela remains in profound crisis. More than eight million Venezuelans have fled the country — the largest exodus in modern Latin American history. The economy has contracted by 70 per cent to 80 per cent in the past decade. Public services have collapsed. The minimum wage is among the lowest in Latin America, and civil liberties have all but disappeared.

Through it all, Machado has remained a moral beacon of the Opposition. In the months leading up to the 2024 elections, she traversed the country despite being formally banned from running, building grassroots networks and urging people to vote. She was assaulted, harassed and ultimately disqualified by the regime-controlled Supreme Court. Still, she pressed forward, unifying the Opposition behind González.

Although the Opposition clearly won in a landslide, the regime refused to recognise defeat and unleashed a wave of repression. “We lived through absolute terror,” Machado told me. The regime branded her a “terrorist” and ordered mass arrests. Yet she remained undaunted. “We will not stop fighting until the people’s sovereignty is respected,” she said.

At the end of our conversation, I asked how she would like to be remembered. She began by asking forgiveness from her three children.

“They’ve carried a heavy burden,” she said. “And as a mother, you never stop feeling the guilt of not being there, of making them endure fear and uncertainty.” But Machado knows that her fight for democracy is vital and will give future generations a better life. “My hope is that we will leave [my children] a country they can feel profoundly proud to call their own.”

Then, after a long pause, she added: “I want to be remembered as someone who served her country, who was useful in achieving the liberation of Venezuela.”

This remarkable courage is not only a testament to Venezuela’s struggle, but a warning to all democracies. In standing up to a regime built on intimidation and deceit, Machado has shown that the defence of liberty demands more than conviction. It demands endurance.

Her fight is Venezuela’s, yes. But her example is for the world.

• León Krauze is an award-winning Mexican journalist, author and news anchor