Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Maria Corina of Venezuela

He has been awarded the prize in recognition of his tireless struggle for the promotion of the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and his efforts for a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy. The Nobel Committee statement said that Maria Corina Machado as the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela is one of the most outstanding examples of recent civic courage in Latin America. Machado emerged as a united leader who brought together the formerly divided opposition on one platform, an opposition that agreed to the demand for free elections and representative government. According to the committee, this is the basic principle that is hidden in the spirit of democracy to defend the principle of public authority despite having different opinions. At a time when democracy is under threat around the world, the preservation of this common ground has become more important than ever. The statement said that Venezuela was once a relatively prosperous and democratic country, but has now turned into a brutal authoritarian state that is suffering from a humanitarian and economic crisis. The majority are living in extreme poverty while a few are in luxury. State machinery is being used against its own citizens, and about 8 million people have been forced to leave the country. The opposition is being systematically suppressed by election rigging, litigation and incarceration Machado founded two decades ago an organization called Somate, which works for democratic development. He said: It was a ballot choice rather than bullets. She was an opposition candidate before the 2024 presidential election, but the government blocked her nomination. He then supported another opposition leader, Edmundo Gonzales Orotia. Millions of volunteers, despite belonging to different political parties, came together to monitor the election so that voting was transparent. Despite threats, arrests and violence, the public monitored the vote count and preserved evidence so that the government could not change the outcome. This collective and peaceful struggle for position became a shining example of democracy. When the opposition released the results of the transparent vote counting globally which showed that it had won the election, the government refused to accept these results and
Democracy is the basic condition for lasting peace, according to the Nobel Committee, today democratic values are being suppressed and dictatorships are increasing all over the world. 2024 saw the highest number of elections in history, but few of them were free and fair.