OSLO: Opposition activist Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela has won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The former opposition presidential candidate in Venezuela was lauded for being a “key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided – an opposition that found common ground in the demand for free elections and representative government,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee.

Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.

There has been persistent speculation ahead of the announcement about the possibility of the prize going to US President Donald Trump, fueled in part by the president himself, amplified by this week’s approval of his plan for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. But longtime Nobel watchers say his chances remain remote despite various notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit.

Groups cited as possible winners by the Peace Research Institute Oslo include Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms, a community-led network that has become the backbone of the country’s humanitarian response to its civil war; the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court; and the Committee to Protect Journalists, a US-based group that promotes press freedom and compiles a list of journalists killed on duty.

Last year’s award went to Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of Japanese atomic bombing survivors who have worked for decades to maintain a taboo around the use of nuclear weapons.

The peace prize is the only one of the annual Nobel prizes to be awarded in Oslo, Norway.

Four of the other prizes have already been awarded in the Swedish capital, Stockholm this week — in medicine on Monday, physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The winner of the prize in economics will be announced on Monday.

The White House on Friday criticized the Nobel Prize committee’s decision to award the peace prize to a Venezuelan opposition leader instead of US President Donald Trump.

“President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives. He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will,” White House spokesman Steven Cheung said in a post on X.

“The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.”