Venezuelan opposition leader wins Nobel Peace Prize
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 10 October 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Venezuela's opposition leader and pro-democracy activist María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
For years, she has campaigned against Venezuela's President Nicolás Maduro, whose 12-year rule is viewed by many nations as illegitimate. We'll speak to one of her close allies about what difference the award might make.
Also in the programme: Thousands of displaced Palestinians are heading back to what's left of their homes as a ceasefire comes into effect in Gaza; how AI-controlled weapons could become a reality on the battlefields of Ukraine; and a new species of pre-historic marine reptile that's just been identified by scientists.
(Photo shows Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado at a protest on 9 January 2025. Credit: Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:09.6 | Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:12.6 | We're coming to you live from London. |
| 0:14.4 | I'm James Menendez. |
| 0:15.7 | And coming up in about half an hour, we'll get the latest on the ceasefire that has now come into force in Gaza. |
| 0:20.9 | We'll be hearing from a resident of the territory. |
| 0:24.3 | But we are going to begin today with the announcement of this year's Nobel Peace Prize. |
| 0:28.8 | Despite heavy campaigning by Donald Trump and the ceasefire deal for Gaza agreed on Thursday, |
| 0:34.5 | it went instead to the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. |
| 0:39.2 | Juergen Wadner Friedness is chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee that awards the Peace Prize. |
| 0:44.8 | The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2025 to Maria Corina Machado. |
| 0:58.6 | She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights |
| 1:05.8 | for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to |
| 1:16.5 | democracy. In fact, the final decision on the prize was made earlier in the week and although |
| 1:21.6 | awarded in October it is recognition for work in 2024. And that was when Maria Corina Machado was barred from standing in a presidential |
| 1:30.6 | election against the longtime incumbent Nicolas Maduro. She was replaced by an ally, Edmundo |
| 1:36.4 | Gonzalez, who was widely recognized as the winner and by a considerable margin. But that's not |
| 1:42.6 | what the official result said. And Mr. Maduro, in the face of international condemnation, |
| 1:47.1 | was sworn in for a third term in January. |
| 1:50.1 | Well, Maria Corina Machado, went into hiding somewhere in Venezuela, |
| 1:53.6 | and it was there that she got the call earlier today. |
| 1:57.0 | I'm honored, humble, and very grateful on behalf of the Venezuelan people. |
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