Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition politician who was barred from standing in last year’s presidential election, has been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize .

In a post on the social media platform X on Friday, the Nobel Committee said it had decided to award the prize to Machado “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.

Announcing Machado’s win in Oslo, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Nobel Committee , said the award had gone “to a brave and committed champion of peace, to a woman who keeps the flame of democracy burning amidst a growing darkness”.

He added that she meets “all the criteria” laid out by Alfred Nobel for the prize

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