VENEZUELA'S IRON LADY

OF all the Nobel prizes, none has attracted as much controversy over the years as the peace prize-for both the choice of awardees and those not chosen.

- AMITAVA SANYAL

This year was no exception. The world recoiled and chortled in turns at the prospect of Donald Trump, who waged a global campaign to promote his candidacy, getting it. Perhaps someone should have told him that the nominations for 2025, which included 244 individuals and 94 organisations, closed 11 days after he was sworn in for the second time.

In the end, he who claimed to have stopped seven wars did not get it. But he made it a point to tell the world that the winner—María Corina Machado of Venezuela— called him to say, "I am accepting this in honour of you because you really deserved it." In a way, Trump's claim makes sense-Machado's ambitions and policies have been closely aligned with US interests.

But first, let's consider the wild swings of history that led up to this moment. In the only country that calls itself a 'Bolivarian republic' to honour Simón Bolívar, whose campaign led to the country's independence from Spain in early 19th century, Machado is from a prominent royalist family. As the daughter of a rich steel magnate, she attended exclusive colleges in Venezuela and the US to train in industrial engineering and finance.