Maria Corina Machado told CBS News on Friday that being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize serves as a message to her fellow Venezuelans that “we are not alone.”
“They have been part of this huge movement,” Machado told CBS News by Zoom. “We are not alone. The world recognizes this huge, epic fight.”
Machado is the leader of the pro-democracy movement in Venezuela, which is under a dictatorship so brutal she has been forced to live in hiding.
“This is certainly the biggest recognition to our people,” Machado told CBS News, which was the only U.S. media outlet to speak to her following Friday’s announcement.
Known as Venezuela’s “Iron Lady,” the 58-year-old Machado has led a massive political movement challenging the country’s authoritarian leaders for over two decades.
First, she challenged former President Hugo Chavez, and now, his successor, President Nicolas Maduro, whose disputed July 2024 reelection was not recognized by the U.S., which instead declared opposition leader Edmundo González, now exiled, as the winner.
For the past several months, the Trump administration has placed pressure on Maduro’s regime, deploying warships to the southern Caribbean and conducting military strikes on alleged drug boats it says originated from Venezuela.
Last week, the White House notified Congress that the U.S. was in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug cartels it has designated as terrorist organizations.
Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday in a statement.
A video captured the emotional moment Machado accepted the award in a phone call from Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
“Oh my God. I have no words. Thank you so much,” Machado said on the call. “I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement for a whole society. I am just one person; I certainly do not deserve this. Oh my God.”
Machado’s defiance has come at a price. She has spent the last year in hiding after Maduro repeatedly threatened to arrest her.
CBS News was with Machado in Venezuela last year during the presidential elections, when Maduro claimed victory despite the international outcry of fraud.
Maduro’s crackdown on dissent escalated, but that didn’t stop her.
“I think it does give me a lot of protection,” said Machado of how receiving the Nobel may have changed her future and her security situation. “But the most important thing, is that it highlights, worldwide, the importance of the struggle of Venezuela.”
Machado told CBS News she spoke to President Trump on Friday and thanked him “from the bottom of the heart of Venezuelans.”
She said she told Mr. Trump that he can “be sure that we are a society committed to freedom, that we will prevail.”
