Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado has won the Nobel Peace Prize, beating out other nominees including US President Donald Trump – who has been campaigning for the coveted prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, said that this year’s winner, Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, was a “key unifying figure” for the country’s democratic opposition.
“Machado has been a key unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided, an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free election and representative government,” Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, said when announcing the winner.
He added that “Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal and authoritarian state”.
US president Donald Trump has, in recent weeks openly campaigned to win the Nobel Peace Prize, telling world leaders and the media that he has ended seven wars, including fighting between Rwanda and the DRC. He has also laid claim to ending the brief fighting between India and Pakistan earlier this year.
This week however, Trump was instrumental getting a peace deal signed between Hamas and Israel.
IOL News and AFP
