Ignoble prize

By Artchil B. Fernandez

The Nobel Prize is arguably the most prestigious award in the world. It is conferred on individuals, organizations, and institutions whose work contributed “for the greatest benefit to humankind.” Among the six Nobel Prizes (physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, peace, economics), the Nobel Peace Prize is perhaps the most esteemed.

The Nobel Peace Prize is bestowed to individuals or organizations who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” Among the outstanding individuals who received the Nobel Peace Prize were Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, the 14th Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, and Henry Dunant. Some of the organizations that were awarded the Peace Prize are the International Committee of the Red Cross, Amnesty International, the United Nations, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons.

Despite its prestige, the selection of Nobel Peace Prize laureates has been fraught with controversy. The 1973 Peace Prize, for example, generated uproar when it was awarded to Henry Kissinger and Lê Đức Thọ “for jointly having negotiated a ceasefire in Vietnam in 1973.” Critics pointed out that Kissinger did not deserve the award, as he was among the architects of the Vietnam War. Thọ declined the award, claiming that peace was not achieved due to U.S. and South Vietnam’s violations of the Paris Peace Accord. Two members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee resigned in protest.

Conferment of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado is under heavy scrutiny and criticism. The Nobel Committee said she got the award “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 Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) questioned the awarding of the Peace Prize to Machado. “Ms. Machado is a vocal supporter of Israel’s racist Likud Party, and earlier this year she delivered remarks at a conference of European fascists, including Geert Wilders and Marie Le Pen, which openly called for a new Reconquista, referencing the ethnic cleansing of Spanish Muslims and Jews in the 1500s,” CAIR said. The group called on the Nobel Committee to rescind the award.

Bjørnar Moxnes, a Norwegian lawmaker, pointed out that Machado’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza does not qualify her to receive the Peace Prize. Awarding the prize to her, according to him, “is not in line with Nobel’s purpose.”

What Machado did to her Nobel Peace Prize this week only affirmed and confirmed that the criticisms for awarding her the prize had basis. She met U.S. President Donald Trump and handed to him her Nobel Peace medal. Trump had long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, openly campaigning and lobbying to win the prize. He publicly expressed his disgust and disappointment that the 2025 prize went to Machado.

After the U.S. invaded Venezuela last Jan. 3, 2025, abducting its president and first lady, Trump threw cold water on Machado’s aspiration to be installed by the U.S. as its puppet president. Trump said she does not have the support of Venezuelans.

In a blatant attempt to coax Trump to make her president of Venezuela, Machado handed to him her Nobel Peace medal. “I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado bragged, claiming she did it “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.” Trump accepted the medal but remains noncommittal in backing Machado’s presidential aspiration.

The brazenly shameless antic of Machado has debased and devalued the Nobel Peace Prize. It is reduced to a cheap currency of transactional politics, a leverage of a bootlicking and ambitious politician from the periphery to extract favor from the emperor of the dominant imperial power in the core/center. The Nobel Peace Prize was transformed by Machado into an ignoble prize, stripping it of its prestige and dignity.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee was stunned by the despicable and vile act of Machado. It rebuked Machado for her disgraceful behavior. “A laureate cannot share the prize with others, nor transfer it once it has been announced,” the committee declared. University of Oslo professor Janne Haaland Matlary equally described Machado’s decision to give the award to Trump as “total lack of respect for the award on her part,” calling it a “pathetic” act. Machado is desperately hungry for power.

Trump further dragged the Peace Prize into the mud when he wrote Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway this week, revealing that his pursuit of annexing Greenland is due to the Nobel Peace Prize snub. “Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace… The world is not secure unless we have Complete and Total Control of Greenland.” He remains bitter despite snatching Machado’s award.

It is tragic that the Nobel Peace Prize is now a pawn in geopolitical power play. Trump is willing to risk open conflict with his European allies due to pique over the award. The Nobel Peace Prize is a symbol of peaceful coexistence and harmony among nations. Now it is deployed as an excuse to grab territory, a thin veil to cloak imperial ambition and design. Trump is blatantly using the Nobel Peace Prize slight to instigate a war, a justification for his expansionist and imperialist agenda. Machado, on the other hand, is using it to curry favor from Trump to become a U.S. lackey in Venezuela.

Mr. Raymond Johansen, a former Oslo mayor, sums up the current predicament of the Nobel Peace Prize. “The awarding of the prize is now so politicized and potentially dangerous that it could easily legitimize an anti-peace prize development.”