The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States, strongly condemned the Nobel Peace Prize committee’s decision to award this year’s prize to Venezuelan politician Maria Corina Machado, calling it “insulting and unacceptable.”
CAIR said the committee’s choice to honor Machado – a politician known for her support of Europe’s far-right movements and Israel’s ruling Likud Party – was “an affront” to those around the world who have risked their lives opposing racism, fascism, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
“The Nobel Peace Prize should go to individuals who have shown moral consistency by bravely advocating justice for all people, not to politicians who demand democracy in their own nation while supporting racism, bigotry, and fascism abroad,” CAIR said in a statement from its Washington, D.C., headquarters.
CAIR urged Machado to apologize for and renounce her past remarks and affiliations, including her participation in the far-right Patriots of Europe conference in Madrid earlier this year, where speakers such as Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, and Viktor Orban called for a “new Reconquista” – a reference to the ethnic cleansing of Muslims and Jews from Spain in the 15th century.
“We call on Ms. Machado to renounce her support for the Likud Party and anti-Muslim fascism in Europe,” CAIR said. “If she refuses, the Nobel committee should reconsider its decision, which has undermined its own reputation. An anti-Muslim bigot and supporter of European fascism has no place being mentioned alongside the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other worthy Nobel laureates.”
CAIR said the Nobel committee should instead honor “students, journalists, activists, or medical professionals who have risked their careers and lives to oppose the genocide in Gaza” – individuals who, the group said, represent the true spirit of peace and justice.
In February, Machado delivered a virtual address to the Patriots of Europe conference, where several far-right figures denounced immigration and glorified the medieval expulsion of Muslims from Iberia. Reuters reported that Machado’s video message opened the event, which featured extremist leaders from across Europe.
Machado has also expressed strong support for Israel’s far-right government. In 2020, she signed a formal alliance between her political party and the Likud Party and later declared, “The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel.” She has pledged to move Venezuela’s embassy to Jerusalem, endorsing Israel’s illegal occupation of the city.
CAIR concluded that honoring such a figure “dishonors the legacy of the Nobel Peace Prize” and ignores the suffering of victims of war and oppression worldwide.
