The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado serves as a powerful symbol of hope for those fighting for democracy at a time when many countries in Latin America are grappling with the entrenchment of authoritarianism and corruption, and regional leaders have failed to respond to one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises, prompted by Nicolás Maduro’s rule.

Machado is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize 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,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Friday. They praised her as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times.”

Despite Maduro’s fierce crackdown on dissent, the largest exodus ever recorded in the region and a traditionally divided opposition, Machado managed to mobilize the population in a presidential election in Julu 2024 that is widely believed to have been won by the opposition candidate she backed, Edmundo Gonzalez. Maduro, however, refused to leave power, and Machado remains in the country, in hiding.

“At a time when democracy in the region is being challenged, an award to somebody for their selfless fight for democracy is a powerful symbol about what the hemisphere can aspire to,” said Eric Farnsworth, a senior associate at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “She’s shown that leadership and commitment to democracy matter, but it also costs. It’s costly to fight for democracy, and I think this is an acknowledgment of that.”

While she continues calling out the regime’s abuses and regularly makes public appearances, Machado found herself speechless early Monday when she received the call from the Nobel Committee.

“I hope you understand this is a movement. I am just one person,” she said, after digesting the news. “This is certainly the biggest recognition of our people, who certainly deserve it.”

The prestigious award put the spotlight on Machado at a time of great uncertainty, amid U.S. military operations near Venezuela that might morph from a counternarcotics effort to regime change, providing her with another layer of protection against the constant threats by the regime’s number two, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello. But it also sends a larger message to Venezuelans, who have endured years of political repression and spiraling poverty and still manage to fight back against the regime.

“Maria Corina Machado being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize exemplifies her courage and bravery against an authoritarian regime,” said Eddy Acevedo, a Latin America foreign policy expert. “This recognition is not only for Maria Corina herself but a symbol for the Venezuelan people who are fighting against Maduro’s dictatorial rule but yearn for a free, democratic, and peaceful future.”

Machado is the first Venezuelan and the seventh Latin American to receive the prize. Most recently, former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos received it in 2016 for “his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.”

The prize once again focuses on a region that has often struggled to draw international attention to the tremendous challenges it faces, and where countries have failed to use diplomatic tools to tackle them effectively.

Even though the opposition providing material evidence that Gonzalez won the presidential vote, regional organizations like the Organization of American States have failed to take any significant steps to address Maduro’s power grab. Democratically elected leaders in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have largely ignored the issue to rest after short-lived efforts to try to open up talks between the opposition and Maduro.

The crisis has revealed the limits of regional and international diplomacy and foreign policy tools to deliver a solution to the Venezuelan people.

“What are the tools anymore? People have been ineffective in changing the scenario,” Farnsworth said. “And even when you have elections, and they have a result, then countries like Brazil and Colombia turn and go the other direction. So, even when you have those tools, they’re not effectively deployed.”

While the Venezuelan crisis has had ripple effects throughout the region because of the exodus of over seven million people, Venezuela’s descent into a full dictatorship without much pushback from other Latin American leaders comes as little surprise. After years of violence, corruption and poverty, governments are increasingly using authoritarian tactics, and the defense of democracy has taken a backseat to pressing domestic issues and economic agendas.

Several countries in the region – including Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua. Paraguay, Perú, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico – have passed or are debating laws to clamp down on independent journalists and civil organizations fighting corruption who are labeled foreign agents if they accept foreign aid. Like Venezuela under the late Hugo Chavez, several democratically elected governments and leaders have been trying to change the rules of the democratic system to benefit their parties – like a successful bid to change how judges are appointed in Mexico – or remaining in power, such as reforms in El Salvador to allow its current president, Nayid Bukele, to be reelected “indefinitely.”

In places like Haiti, ravaged by gang violence, governance has almost all but collapsed. And like Venezuela, the region has been scrambling to respond in any significant way. Regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua continue with decades of political repression unchallenged.

In this context, Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize sends a strong political message in support of those fighting for democracy in Latin America.

“What the Nobel Committee is saying is, first of all, we see you, this is an important and worthy effort, and it’s worth fighting,” Farnsworth said. “What I think the most powerful aspect of this is that it gives hope to the Venezuelan people that they haven’t been forgotten.”

Already, Cuba’s top diplomats have been sharing propaganda content discrediting Machado as a warmonger. But the Nobel Prize pokes a big hole in that narrative, especially because the committee highlighted that Machado “has shown that the tools of democracy are also the tools of peace.”

“Maduro constantly and wrongly tries to portray Machado as a warmonger, but let this moment be a warning to Maduro that the international community will not be fooled by his lies and repression,” Acevedo said. “Maduro and his cronies are the only side that have used violence, arrests, kidnappings, and killings in this struggle, and the world has the evidence.”

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