Norwegian Peace Council Cancels Event to Honor Nobel Winner Maria Corina Machado

No, it isn’t. Nobel Prizes are generally awarded to those who are either working toward a peaceful resolution to a specific cause or have achieved something relevant to advancing that cause. In the first case, the prize is often given as a symbolic gesture of support for whatever the winner is trying to accomplish, as long as it aligns with the values of the Nobel Committee — as in the case of María Corina Machado.

Overall, she didn’t achieve anything concrete, but she was receiving support in her fight against Maduro. She is a somewhat far-right, controversial figure who also endorses far-right movements worldwide, including in the U.S., Israel, and Europe.

She has also been quite vocal recently in favor of a military invasion of Venezuela and has explicitly endorsed a series of failed neoliberal economic policies as remedies for the country’s economic problems — especially nowadays, when both the right and the left are distancing themselves from neoliberalism across much of the Western world. Her videos in which she says she would sell everything in Venezuela to foreigners are particularly telling — as if doing so would suddenly attract people genuinely interested in developing Venezuela’s economy from the ground up, instead of a wave of rent-seeking foreign investors.

The fact that she is unwilling to work alongside other Latin American leftist leaders who oppose Maduro further shows how deeply she embraces far-right identity politics — especially compared with someone like Zelensky, who is open to working with anyone willing to help him fight against Russia.

She is, above all, a political force that tends to escalate conflict, believing she will prevail through chaos. Let’s not forget that many of her far-right allies have been involved in several coup attempts in Venezuela’s recent history — dating back to the early 2000s — and that they lack any coherent plan for real economic development to help the country recover from the catastrophe it faces under Maduro.

These are the main reasons her winning the Nobel Prize is so problematic and motivated the strong reaction from the Norwegian Peace Council. My advice is not to expect anything from Venezuela’s far right. They are at least as problematic — if not more — than Maduro.