The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to Venezuela's opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, forced to live in hiding in what has become a "brutal" state, the Nobel jury said, France 24 reports.
Machado, who has lived in hiding for the past year, was honoured "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," said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
"I am in shock," the opposition leader could be heard saying in a video sent to AFP by her press team.
Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a "brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis," Frydnes said.
"The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country's own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country," he said.
The opposition has been systematically suppressed by means of "election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment."
In this context, Machado has been a "key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided."
The committee hailed her as "one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times".
"Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions."
Ahead of Venezuela's election in 2024, Machado was the opposition's presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy.
She then backed reluctant, little-known ex-diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia as her stand-in.
Machado's Nobel win was a surprise, her name not among those mentioned as possible laureates in the run-up to Friday's announcement.
