Venezuelans in “Little Venezuela,” the largest home for Venezuelans in the United States, welcomed with joy the news that opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize.

“I'm so glad, not only for her, but also for my country,” said Leonardo Wilthew, 87, a Venezuelan-American, as he helped his wife Iris put up a poster of Machado near the entrance of the popular Arepazo eatery in Doral, Florida.

“It hits me very hard and I start crying,” he said.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”

The former opposition presidential candidate is a “key, unifying figure” in the once deeply divided opposition to President Nicolás Maduro’s government, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee.

Maduro’s government has routinely targeted its real or perceived opponents.

Machado, who turned 58 this week, was set to run against Maduro in last year’s presidential election, but the government disqualified her. Edmundo González, who had never run for office before, took her place.

The lead-up to the election saw widespread repression, including disqualifications, arrests and human rights violations.