When the opposition to Nicolas Maduro's government in Venezuela seemed once again dejected and unable to bring about change, the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to its leader, Maria Corina Machado, reborn hope.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee selected Machado this Friday “for her tireless work promoting the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Machado has tried everything in her fight against the government first of Hugo Chavez and now of Maduro.

She has participated in elections and called for abstention, she has sat at negotiating tables that have failed and has called for people to take to the streets.

As an opposition leader in the elections of July 28, 2024, she organized a structure that allowed the publication of the electoral records that showed the opposition's victory over Maduro, whom the electoral body declared the winner without showing the results.

In this interview with BBC Mundo, Machado analyzes what may happen now after the Nobel Prize is awarded.

Maria Corina Machado, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner. You are the second Latin American woman and the first Venezuelan to achieve this recognition. How did you feel when the news was announced to you?

Well, I think it's the same thing I feel right now. I still can't believe it. I haven't had a chance to process it.

But at the same time, I feel that the people of Venezuela have earned this recognition.

Millions and millions of Venezuelans who have given everything. They have risked their lives, their families, their assets, everything.

This is an injection of energy, of encouragement, of strength to complete the final stage of this struggle, which is the liberation of Venezuela and the construction of a nation with very solid democracy and ethical pillars.

Despite this great news that is making headlines around the world, the atmosphere in Venezuela is not festive. How does it feel not to be able to celebrate this award in the streets with your followers, and that the opposition itself cannot celebrate it out of fear?

But it is very festive in homes, and that is something very powerful that is happening in Venezuela.

We have understood that in the face of this regime of terror, we must find mechanisms of action, but protected ones.

That has made us innovate in (several) ways: organizing, communicating, and protecting one another.

What has happened in these hours in Venezuela is extraordinary. People know, and they tell me, that it's an award for all Venezuelans.

I'll go further; I would say it's for all those citizens of the world who have contributed to the continued growth of the voice of Venezuela and the strength of this gigantic movement we've built, so that we are truly on the threshold of freedom.

The government has remained silent since Friday. Have you received any kind of message or communication from the government?

Obviously, they haven't communicated with me. Obviously they understand that what happened is the legitimization of this entire movement that achieved an overwhelming victory on July 28, 2024.

This confirms that Nicolas Maduro is absolutely isolated.

Even his former allies and governments that accompanied him have abandoned him.

Venezuela has changed a lot since you founded the Vente Venezuela movement in 2012 and Hugo Chavez was still in power, how has your struggle evolved?

Venezuela has changed a lot on many levels.

Of course, the most evident and public part for the international community is the destruction not only of our economy and our natural resources.

Venezuela's Gross Domestic Product has fallen 80% in a decade. That has not happened anywhere else in the world.

Another terrible damage that has been done is to the institutions. Today in Venezuela, no one dares to speak out, not a human rights activist, not a judge, not a journalist, not a priest.

They take people to prison simply for denouncing inflation, rising costs, or a lack of food. And if they can't find the person, they take their family.

This is the level of depravity we've seen progressively take hold in the country, but at the same time, this force has grown, uniting us.

In 2023,in view of the primaries, we began a process of reunion of Venezuelans.

This movement was able to hold primaries against the will of the regime, without its resources or the electoral body.

Later, we were able to build an unprecedented citizen platform in the world of more than a million citizens that has transformed into this force that, despite all the repression, today has the regime against the wall.

Finally, the position of the international community has also changed enormously, which has understood that we are not facing a conventional dictatorship, but rather a criminal structure that has turned Venezuela into a sanctuary for the operations of all the enemies of the West.

Iran, Russia, Hezbollah, Hamas, the cartels, the guerrillas.

They operate freely in Venezuela and from here they destabilize the region. Now the world understands that, since it is a criminal structure, it must be treated as such, applying the law and international order.

So we are in a unique and unprecedented moment.

The regime is weaker than ever and Venezuelan society is more united, hopeful, and organized than ever.

What self-criticism is being done at this moment?

Of course we have made many mistakes. We must learn from them and accept them with humility.

I feel that the biggest mistake was having underestimated the cruelty and lack of scruples of the Chavez regime and later of the Maduro regime.

Regimes that systematically provoke confrontation between citizens, that systematically seek to expel a third of the population and have society starve, including children. Our children don't go to public school.

In Venezuela, public schools only operate two days a week because teachers are paid practically nothing.

We underestimated a regime that sought to destroy society in order to seize Venezuela's wealth for criminal purposes.

You have protested, you have gone to elections, you have called for abstention. You can say that you have tried all the avenues. What's next? What's the next step for the Venezuelan opposition?

Indeed, we have gone down all these paths. We have been in the streets, we have protested, we have been shot at, persecuted, tortured, and murdered.

We have gone to elections and they have been stolen from us, but in addition, we have demonstrated our victory and, of course, we have participated in dozens of supposed dialogues, in which the regime has ignored the commitments it had made time and again.

The next step is the one we are taking now.

We have finally understood that this has to be a coordination of internal and external forces.

When you face a criminal structure,which ultimately sustains itself with the flow of money that comes from its criminal activities, those flows must be cut off. You have to have an organized society.

Today, we are tens and tens of thousands of citizens communicating underground, clandestinely, and we need the international community to take firm steps to stop the flow of money that the regime uses for corruption and repression.

That is finally what is happening now.

Chavismo has accused the US of planning an invasion. A poll was recently published stating that in the event of a possible military action to "remove Maduro," 44% of those surveyed said they would take to the streets to support the action, while 7% would take to the streets to reject it. What do you think of these results and what is your position on them?

Venezuela is already experiencing an invasion, absolutely. From Cuban, Iranian, Chinese, Russian agents, Islamic terrorists and drug cartels that have taken control of a good part of our territory, leaving trails of blood, destruction, pain and hunger.

That is why there is this reaction, because this is about liberation.

First of all, we Venezuelans have already given a mandate for regime change. This is very important and the world knows it and has recognized it.

Maduro is clearly a criminal.

He is the head of a criminal structure, he is an illegitimate person who clings to power by force, applying state terrorism, as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights itself has said, and committing crimes against humanity, as the United Nations fact-finding mission itself has said.

So, the country and society yearn for freedom to be able to move forward with an orderly transition.

Of course we know we need external support.

With the terror there is in Venezuela, the fact that almost 50% of the population tells you they want support means it's actually almost 90%, because people are terrified to speak out, even in a poll.

So you would support an invasion as a last resort?

Who is talking about an invasion here? I repeat: the invasion already exists.

The invasion already exists; what we need is liberation. And for that, we need firm positions, for example, like the one we had yesterday at the United Nations Security Council, where the United Kingdom maintained a firm leadership position, as it has in other conflicts around the world, such as the one in the Middle East and Ukraine. we're going to do and what's going to happen.

Now it's up to Maduro.

Maduro needs to understand that he's been offered a negotiation process and that, if he accepts it, things will be much better for him. But he'll leave, no matter what he decides.

You are an ally of Trump, but Trump is ordering attacks on ships where Venezuelans have died and is ending TPS, which protects thousands of Venezuelans in the United States from the Maduro government. Isn't there a contradiction there? Some criticize you for maintaining a position that does not seek to contradict Trump. Do you think it is incompatible to have a good relationship with Trump and criticize the attacks in which Venezuelans die?

There is only one statement: we are going to liberate Venezuela and we are going to offer protection to all Venezuelans within their country.

Nine million Venezuelans have had to flee due to the direct fault of Nicolas Maduro, who murders, impoverishes, and persecutes.

Here, the person responsible for what is happening is called Nicolas Maduro and his entourage, who have declared a war on us Venezuelans that we did not want.

As you said, I have tried all peaceful, civic, and constitutional mechanisms.

The person responsible for what is happening is Maduro, who personally runs a drug cartel.

One important thing I want to say is that the case of Venezuela is different from other countries.

There are many countries in the world where drug cartels and criminal groups have infiltrated public power bodies.

In the case of Venezuela, a drug cartel took over all state bodies and uses this to subdue, persecute, torture, and murder the defenseless population and destabilize the region.

They have turned Venezuela into the hub of global organization. crime, a country that is at the heart of the Americas.

So, who is responsible for other countries acting to defend their national security?

The person in charge is Nicolas Maduro.

What does he say to the opposition who do not want the United States to invade or attack Venezuela?

There are only two positions. You are either with the people of Venezuela, who ordered a transition to democracy, or you are with a cartel and the crime that Maduro represents.

There are two positions: with the people of Venezuela, accompanied by the United States and the majority of the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean and Europe.

There are very few cases that have remained silent in the face of Nicolas Maduro's criminal escalation.

So I'm not going to speculate about the motivations for some people in Venezuela to conform to the regime's narrative. They have their reasons.

But I can tell you this, history will judge, just as the Venezuelan people are judging today.

Back in 2017, Trump said that all options were on the table and nothing happened. Why is this time different?

I believe that we are living, as I said before, an unprecedented moment in the history of Venezuela.

Never has society been so united, so organized. We have legitimate leadership. We have an absolutely articulate and united opposition, and a cohesive society.

I ask you: in what other country in the world do you have 90% of society that has no differences, neither religious, nor racial, nor regional, nor economic, nor ideological? We all want the same thing.

This is something we have never achieved before in our country, and I find it hard to see another case in the world today.

Secondly, the regime is weaker than ever. Not only are there now evident internal fractures: they betray each other, they betray each other, they fear each other because they know that time is up.

And, evidently, all the crimes that Nicolas Maduro and his entourage have committed over these years have created a monumental record, which not only the United States but also European and Latin American countries have. And it's time to make all of this public.

If I've asked democratic governments for anything, it's that they apply the law.

We need the information they have about the crimes, about the front men who have made the plundering of Venezuela possible, to be made known, and for the financial systems of those countries that have welcomed this blood money to make it public and take it away from the regime so that, evidently, it can no longer be used for repression, persecution, and terror.

And I believe that we are moving in that direction, and that is why I am so optimistic and convinced that freedom for Venezuela is very close.

You spoke with President Trump on Friday. What can you say about that conversation?

Yes, we had a conversation yesterday. It was a good conversation. I was able to express our gratitude and how grateful the Venezuelan people are for what you are doing, not only in America, but throughout the world, for peace, freedom, and democracy.

I was very happy that we had the opportunity to talk.

Do you think that the solution for Venezuela is already in the hands of others?

We have never thought that,Because that would be evading our responsibility. If we Venezuelans have learned anything, it is precisely co-responsibility.

This does not depend on international or national leaders. This depends on everyone.

The key here lies in the people who, paradoxically,are the variable that is always left out of all the analyzes that have been made about Venezuela in recent years.

Those who said it was impossible to hold citizen primaries without the regime being involved, those who said it was impossible to organize and mobilize the population to defeat Maduro under absolutely fraudulent conditions in the elections, those who now tell us that an orderly transition is impossible because chaos would dream. That is the regime's latest narrative. They are the ones who are in chaos.

What more chaos can there be in Venezuela, in a country where the population has nothing to eat, cannot go to school, and has no medicine in the hospitals?

So, this thesis that Venezuela would descend into chaos is absolutely false, because the key lies in the people who will accompany a transition process.

Of course it is very difficult, very hard, delicate, and complex. These guys have destroyed everything.

We don't know what Venezuela's reserves are. We don't know what the country's budget is. We don't know how much PDVSA (the state oil company) produces, how much public spending is. We don't know anything.

We don't know what is happening inside PDVSA, what is happening inside the Supreme Court, the Supreme Tribunal. Nothing. Everything is murky. A complete black box, everything is corruption, crime, and mafia.

So, of course it's going to be a great challenge, but I assure you that you're going to see a peaceful, orderly transition, which is what the people have ordered and that the people are going to guarantee it.

What message do you have for Maduro today?

For the peace of Venezuela, go now, now. And for your own good, because with or without negotiations, Maduro will leave power very soon.

And what message do you give to the Venezuelans who still follow him?

I know that even among those Venezuelans who are being threatened because they are public employees, because they have been told that they will take away a bag of food if they do not attend the regime's absurd calls, or among those who are being spied on, persecuted by the armed forces, the military, the police, the courts, there is also that longing to live with dignity, with freedom.

These are Venezuelans who arrive home and find their refrigerators empty, who are berated by their children, who cannot look their mothers in their eyes, and who know that there is no future here.

Meanwhile, we are opening our arms to say 'we are going to rediscover this country, as we have already rediscovered 90% of it.' There are few left.This victory for Venezuela will be historic, not just for us. I believe it will be historic for the history of humanity,because it is a people who were confronted with the most violent and cruel weapons and decided to organize, resist, and advance civically, believing in our strength, in our ideas.

And I feel that today more than ever this movement and this emerging force will transcend our borders. This will not remain only in Venezuela. When Maduro falls, we will see how the Cuban regime will fail and how the Nicaraguan regime will fail, and we will have all of the Americas free of tyranny, dictatorships, and narco-terrorism.