Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday morning, a blow to President Donald Trump , who has been heavily campaigning to receive the honor. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Machado was given the 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.”

During the ceremony in Oslo, Norwegian Nobel committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes praised Machado as a “brave and committed champion of peace” who “keeps the flame of democracy burning during a growing darkness.”

“This is precisely what lies at the heart of democracy, our shared willingness to defend the principles of popular rule, even though we disagree,” Fry

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