“Our journey towards freedom has always lived inside us. We are returning to ourselves. We are returning home.”

Maria Corina Machado, 2025 peace prize laureate, delivered a powerful Nobel Peace Prize lecture in Oslo, Norway. Although she could not be present in person, her words were carried to us by her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa Machado.

In the lecture, Machado reminded us that the spirit of liberty is rooted in Venezuelan soil, and encouraged Venezuelans to keep fighting for freedom. She guided us through Venezuela’s history of democracy. In 1811, Venezuelan wrote the first constitution in the Spanish-speaking world – affirming the radical idea that every human being carries a sovereign dignity and enshrining citizenship, individual rights, religious liberty, and separation of powers.

She illustrated how Venezuela opened its arms to migrants and exiles from every corner of the earth in times of turmoil, for example, Spaniards fleeing civil war, Italians and Portuguese escaping poverty and dictatorship, and Jews after the Holocaust.

She spoke of how authoritarian rule emerged from 1999 onward, as the current regime dismantled democratic institutions, oppressed its own people, and how she and her fellow Venezuelans have continued to fight for freedom.

It is her firm belief that "freedom is a choice that must be renewed each day, measured by our willingness and our courage to defend it", and that the will of the Venezuelan people will prevail, restoring democracy and hope in Venezuela.

Watch the full lecture: nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2…