"We're not there yet. We're working very hard to achieve it, but I'm sure that we will prevail," she told Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Nobel Institute and secretary of the Nobel Committee, when he called to inform her that she had won the 2025 prize.

In a video of the call posted on X by the Nobel Foundation, Harpviken could be seen trying to hold back tears, his voice cracking as he broke the news to her, waking her in the middle of the night.

"This is certainly the biggest recognition to our people that certainly deserve it," she said, adding: "I am just, you know, one person. I certainly do not deserve this."

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected in 2024 in an election numerous countries said was rigged, and which Machado was barred from despite enormous popularity in the polls.

The Nobel Committee honoured her "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."

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