This October 10, to the surprise of many, it was announced that María Corina Machado, activist and politician from Venezuelareceived the Nobel Peace Prize.
According to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Machado was chosen for “his tireless work in promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for their fight to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
After accepting the award, Machado dedicated it “to every Venezuelan citizen”.
“To every Venezuelan: this award is yours. It is a recognition of what we have achieved together and a reminder of what is still missing. Now we move forward with even more strength, confidence and unwavering faith, because we go hand in hand with God until the end”, he noted in a statement.
This is the second time in history that a figure originally from Venezuela has won a Nobel Prize. The first was in 1980, within the medical and scientific field.
It is about Baruj BenacerrafVenezuelan-American immunologist specialized in the genetic basis of the immune response.
Baruj Benacerraf was a Venezuelan-American immunologist. In 1980 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes. His research demonstrated that genetic factors regulate an individual’s immune responses. pic.twitter.com/XUUBvRJQB6
— Summit Academy CS (@SummitAcademy_C) September 29, 2025
Between 1968 and 1970, Benacerraf directed the Immunology Laboratory of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In 1970 he was appointed director of the Department of Comparative Pathology at Harvard Medical School.
In 1980 he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, together with Jean Dausset and George Snellfor his discoveries about the genetic structures found on the cell surface that regulate the body’s immune reactions.
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