Maria Corina Machado

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Maria Corina Machado  link (Politician, engineer, broadcaster)
File:Maria Corina Machado 1.jpg
Born	7 October 1967 Caracas, Republic of Venezuela
Alma mater	Andrés Bello Catholic University, Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración
Children	3
Party	Vente Venezuela
Venezuelan woman who begged Trump to bomb her country wins Nobel Peace Prize

María Corina Machado Parisca is a Venezuelan politician who former president Hugo Chávez derided as “the good-looking bourgeoisie,” others describing her as “the iron lady” in reference to Margaret Thatcher.

Maria Corina Machado has spent over two decades in politics, was a member of the National Assembly of Venezuela from 2011 to 2014 and leads the neoliberal Vente Venezuela opposition party.

On 10 October 2025, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "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."

On 15 January 2026, at the White House, Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to Donald Trump saying it was "a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom".

Background

Maria Corina Machado was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on 7 October 1967. She is a descendant of the 3^rd Marquis of Toro, Sebastián José Antonio Rodríguez del Toro y Ascanio (1739–1787), and is the eldest of the four daughters of the psychologist Corina Parisca (1940) and the steel businessman Henrique Machado Zuloaga (1930–2023), who was a nephew of Armando Zuloaga, who was killed in an uprising against Venezuelan dictator Juan Vicente Gómez. She is also the great-great-granddaughter of Eduardo Blanco, great-great-niece of Martín Tovar y Tovar, and great-grandniece of Ricardo Zuloaga.

Political career

Machado entered politics in 2002 as a founder of the election-monitoring organisation Súmate, which led a petition drive for the 2004 Venezuelan recall referendum of Hugo Chávez, then president of Venezuela. After the referendum, members of Súmate, including Machado, were charged with treason and conspiracy, under Article 132 of the Venezuelan Penal Code, for receiving financial support for their activities from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

On 31 May 2005, the then US president George W. Bush welcomed Machado to the Oval Office and "expressed his concerns about efforts to harass and intimidate Súmate and its leadership." In 2009, Machado was accepted to the Yale World Fellows Program (YWFP), which "aims to build a global network of emerging leaders and to broaden international understanding worldwide. The YWFP press release said:

"Machado devotes herself to defending democratic institutions and civil liberties through Súmate, the nation's leading watchdog for electoral transparency."

In February 2010, Machado resigned from Súmate and announced her candidacy for the National Assembly of Venezuela. She was elected in 2011 but was removed from the National Assembly on 21 March 2014, following allegations of treason and the launch of a criminal investigation against Machado for organising violent protests against the Maduro government.

Machado worked as a broadcaster on the radio station Caracas Radio between 2014 and 2021, where she hosted a talk show and political analysis program called "Contigo: Con María Corina Machado", broadcast on Tuesdays from 1 to 2 pm.

In 2023, Machado won the opposition primary election to become the unity candidate for the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election. However, she had been disqualified from holding public office by the Comptroller General of Venezuela in June 2023, a ruling upheld by the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela in January 2024. As a result, she was replaced as the candidate first by Corina Yoris and later by Edmundo González Urrutia.

In August 2024, Machado announced she had gone into hiding, stating she feared for her life and freedom under the Maduro government.

Foreign policy

Pro-Israel

Regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Machado expressed her solidarity with Israel following the attacks of 7 October 2023. She thanked Israel for its support of Edmundo González as president-elect, and previously of Juan Guaidó as acting president. Machado also plans to reestablish diplomatic relations with Israel, which were cut in 2009 due to the 2008-2009 Gaza War.

Pro-Trump

Since Donald Trump’s reelection, Machado has been an outspoken supporter of the US president, describing him as the “biggest opportunity we’ve ever had” for regime change in Venezuela.

Awards

In 2018, Maria Corina Machado was named one of the BBC's 100 Most Influential Women.

In 2019, Machado received the Prize for Freedom from Liberal International.

Machado was awarded the 2024 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Council of Europe. She was one of three finalists along with Akif Gurbanov and Babutsa Pataraia.

Along with Edmundo González, she was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament on 24 October 2024 for "representing the people of Venezuela fighting to restore freedom and democracy."

In April 2025, Machado was listed among Time magazine's 100 most influential people, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio noting her "personification of resilience, tenacity, and patriotism."

Nobel Peace Prize winner

File:2025 Nobel Peace Prize.png

Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Nobel Committee, announcing the 2025 peace prize winner: Maria Corina Machado

On 10 October 2025, following the award of the Nobel Peace Prize, Machado posted on X dedicating the prize to the "suffering people of Venezuela" and "President Trump for his decisive support of our cause".

Nobel Imperialism Prize

Normal Island News posted on X:

Huge congratulations to Maria Corina Machado who has won the Nobel Imperialism Prize for steadfastly supporting Israel's genocide and calling on the US to invade her own country so she can be installed as puppet leader while Trump takes Venezuela's oil.

Regime change fanatic

On 10 October 2025, Max Blumenthal posted on X:

The Nobel Committee has decided to make the case for Trump’s war on Venezuela, giving its “Peace Prize” to Maria Corina Machado, a US govt-funded regime change activist who’s helped lead failed military coups, violent street riots, and has likely promised her country’s oil and mineral wealth to a consortium of MAGA aligned billionaires in exchange for financing her political arsonism. This icon of peace has even appealed to Benjamin Netanyahu to help her lead a military invasion of Venezuela.

Maria Corina Machado is a marionette for Marco Rubio, a creation of the CIA-sponsored Gusano Industrial Complex that has brought violent terror and siege to any Latin American country defying the Washington Consensus of privatisation and austerity, and a would-be Pinochet in a skirt.

Machado has spent years lobbying for US and EU starvation sanctions on her own country, resulting in waves of migration to the US, fuelling the nativist resentment that gave rise to Trump. When Trump shipped Venezuelan migrants to a torture camp in El Salvador this year, Machado predictably sided with Trump, the main sponsor of her putchist career, over her countrymen.

Giving the Nobel to Machado is a green light for regime change war on Venezuela, and then Cuba. But the decision is consistent with the Committee’s role as a soft power instrument of Western empire. Just recall its award to Obama at the beginning of his first term, granting him infinite legitimacy in advance of his destruction of Libya, escalation of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and facilitation of Gaza’s decimation. Given that nothing has happened in Machado’s career without the support and guidance of Washington, the Committee’s decision must be seen as the result of another Western op - a coup in Oslo to pave the way for one in Caracas.

A casus moralis for war

In December 2025, Julian Assange alleged the Nobel Committee contravened the principles enshrined in its founding documents, as well as Swedish law, in awarding its peace prize to Trump’s favourite Venezuelan opposition figure.

The Nobel Committee’s decision to award Machado the Peace Prize — and the 11 million Swedish Kroner ($1.18 million USD) reward which accompanies it — means that “there is a real risk that funds derived from Nobel’s endowment have been or will be… diverted from their charitable purpose to facilitate aggression], crimes against humanity, and war crimes,” Assange stated.

The Wikileaks founder pointed to the “ample public statements… showing that the US government and María Corina Machado have exploited the authority of the prize to provide them with a casus moralis for war,” adding that the explicitly stated purpose of the war sought by Machado and her wealthy Latin American backers would be “installing her by force in order to plunder $1.7 trillion in Venezuelan oil and other resources.”

The Nobel Foundation stands accused of a number of violations of Swedish criminal law, including breach of trust, misappropriation and gross misappropriation, conspiracy, crimes against international law, as well as financing of aggression, facilitation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and breaching Sweden’s stated obligations under the Rome Statute, to which Stockholm says it is “deeply committed.”

Under Swedish law, “Alfred Nobel’s endowment for peace cannot be spent on the promotion of war,” Assange noted. “Nor can it be used as a tool in foreign military intervention. Venezuela, whatever the status of its political system, is no exception.”

By granting Nobel funds to Machado, Assange argues that the Committee is effectively financing “a conspiracy to murder civilians, to violate national sovereignty using military force…” By refusing to end payments, “they flagrantly violate Nobel’s will and clearly cross the threshold into criminality,” he alleged. The Wikileaks co-founder seeks the “immediate freezing of all remaining funds and a full criminal investigation” into Committee members who awarded the prize.

Requested measures:

1. Immediate freezing of the pending SEK 11,000,000 monetary prize transfer and any remaining related budget and secure return of the medal.

2. Investigation of the named persons and Foundation officers and associated entities for breach of trust, facilitation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and conspiracy.

3. Seizure of board minutes, emails, group chats, financial records.

4. Interrogation of Widding, Stjärne and other suspects.

5. ICC referral (Rome Statute Art. 25(3)(c)).