Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for promoting democratic rights in her country and her struggle to achieve a transition to democracy, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.

"When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist," it said in its citation.

The committee chose to focus on Venezuela at this time, in a year dominated by US President Donald Trump's repeated public statements that he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ahead of the announcement, experts on the award had said Trump would not win it as he is dismantling the international world order the Nobel committee cherishes.

Machado, a 58-year-old industrial engineer, was blocked in 2024 by Venezuela's courts from running for president and thus challenging President Nicolas Maduro, who has been in power since 2013.

"Oh my God ... I have no words," Machado told the secretary of the award body, Kristian Berg Harpviken, in a phone call which the Nobel Committee posted on social media.

"I thank you so much, but I hope you understand this is a movement, this is an achievement of a whole society. I am just one person. I certainly do not deserve it," she added.

White House criticises decision as 'Political'

The White House criticised the decision, just days after Trump announced a breakthrough in talks to halt the fighting in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

"President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives... The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace," White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said in a post on X.

Maduro, whose 12 years in office have been marked by deep economic and social crisis, was sworn in for a third term in January this year, despite a six-month-long election dispute, international calls for him to stand aside and an increase in the U.S. reward offered for his capture.

"When authoritarians seize power, it is crucial to recognise courageous defenders of freedom who rise and resist," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in its citation.

Will She be able to attend ceremony?

It was not immediately clear whether she would be able to attend the award ceremony in Oslo on December 10.

Should she not attend, she would join the list of Peace Prize laureates prevented from doing so in the award's 124-year-history, including Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov in 1975, Poland's Lech Walesa in 1983 and Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.

Machado is the first Venezuelan to win the Nobel Peace Prize and the sixth from Latin America.

The United Nations human rights office welcomed the award to Machado as a recognition of "the clear aspirations of the people of Venezuela for free and fair elections".

The head of the award committee, Joergen Watne Frydnes, said he hoped the award would spur the Venezuelan opposition's work.

"We hope that the entire opposition will have renewed energy to continue the work for a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy," Frydnes told reporters after the announcement.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 11 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, is due to be presented in Oslo on Dec 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.