London: Venezuelan peace campaigner Maria Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize, besting an intense lobbying campaign to name US President Donald Trump this year’s winner because of his efforts to secure a lasting peace in Gaza .

Trump has openly sought the prize this year, saying repeatedly that he should win it but that the awards committee might not give it to him.

Machado is in hiding in Venezuela after campaigning for free and fair elections for more than two decades, and she has refused to leave the country even as eight million of her fellow citizens have fled autocratic rule.

Born in 1967, she trained in engineering and finance before entering politics in 2002. She gained support as an opposition candidate for the presidency last year. The government barred her from ru

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