The Interview11 Joulu 2025

María Corina Machado, Venezuelan opposition leader: Our fight for freedom is a fight for peace

Lucy Hockings speaks to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado about the fight for democracy in the South American country. She’s been in hiding since last year’s presidential election in Venezuela, when incumbent Nicolás Maduro declared victory in a contest that was widely dismissed on the international stage as rigged, sparking widespread protests.

Around 2,000 people were arrested in the crackdown which followed, among them many members of her opposition coalition. Machado, who had managed to unite the bitterly divided opposition ahead of the election, went into hiding for fear of arrest. She has however continued to give interviews and uploaded videos to social media urging her followers not to give up.

The Nobel Institute awarded Machado the 2025 Peace prize for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy" in Venezuela. She defied a travel ban to reach Oslo, with Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes describing her journey as "a situation of extreme danger". The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Lucy Hockings Producer: Dylan Arzoni, Claire Noble and Ben Cooper Editors: Justine Lang and Nick Holland

Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: María Corina Machado. Photo by Ole Berg-Rusten/EPA/Shutterstock)

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(1978)

Peter Obi, Nigerian presidential candidate: The last election was rigged

“Nigeria can fight insecurity, head on. It only requires it for the commander-in-chief to be determined that this will end. Those criminals live with us. In our communities, people know them. I will g...

15 Loka 23min

Alexander Tah-ray Yui, Taiwan’s representative to US: We’re prepared for China to invade

“We don't have to have a fight, and we don't have to land in China, go to Beijing and win the war. All we have to do is prevent them to getting their objective of landing in Taiwan and conquering. It'...

13 Loka 22min

Meredith Whittaker, Signal president: Privacy is a human right

“Private communication is a fundamental human right for a reason, because when those with power over you have access to your intimate thoughts and your communication, they use those to punish you. The...

11 Loka 22min

Jerry Brown, former California governor: America then and now

BBC special correspondent James Naughtie speaks to former Governor of California, Jerry Brown.He was first elected governor in 1974, succeeding Ronald Reagan, and went on to serve two eight-year terms...

8 Loka 22min

Shami Chakrabarti, human rights lawyer: Healthy democracies need a free media

“There aren't enough lawyers and judges on the planet if journalists are silent, because abuses of power just don't come to light, in my experience, without this relationship between a free media, fai...

6 Loka 24min

Olara Otunnu, diplomat: UN cannot be diplomatic ivory tower

“I do not want the United Nations of New York, Geneva or Vienna to be an ivory tower, a diplomatic ivory tower. I want to see the UN not of power and privilege, but the UN of service and impact. That...

4 Loka 23min

Kai Bird, Author: Roy Cohn, the man who shaped Trump?

“He had no guardrails. He had no rules. He told Donald Trump, you know, when criticised, attack, attack, attack, deny, deny deny, always go on the offensive, never apologise. And Trump, when he met Ro...

1 Loka 22min

Abhijeet Dipke, youth campaigner: There’s an underlying frustration in India

“I think there’s been this underlying frustration among the youth of India for a very long time. If we look at the unemployment data, India currently has the highest unemployment rate in the last 40 y...

29 Syys 23min