Machado, who has lived in hiding for the past year, was honored "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," said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

"I am in shock," the opposition leader could be heard saying in a video sent to AFP by her press team. 

Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a "brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis," Frydnes said.

"The violent machinery of the state is directed against the country's own citizens. Nearly eight million people have left the country," he said.

The opposition has been systematically suppressed by means of "election rigging, legal prosecution and imprisonment."

In this context, Machado has been a "key, unifying figure in a political opposition that was once deeply divided."  

The committee hailed her as "one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times".

"Despite serious threats against her life, she has remained in the country, a choice that has inspired millions."

Hailed as "la libertadora", in an allusion to Venezuelan independence hero Simon "The Liberator" Bolivar, Machado, a fearless activist with rock-star appeal, is a key face of the opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's iron-fisted regime.

Machado had won an opposition primary with 90 percent of votes cast in 2023, but was promptly declared ineligible by authorities loyal to Maduro.               

Ahead of Venezuela's election in 2024, Machado was the opposition's presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She was then detained and released after seeking to fire up resistance to the Venezuelan leader.

In July, she called for "clandestine" resistance against Maduro on the anniversary of his disputed re-election.

For weeks rumors have circulated on social networks that Machado, who has gone into hiding, is sheltering at the US embassy.

Polled as the most popular politician in Venezuela by far, Machado had accepted taking a political back seat and campaigned tirelessly for her last-minute replacement on the ballot: little-known ex-diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

Machado's Nobel win was a surprise, her name not among those mentioned as possible laureates in the run-up to Friday's announcement.

US President Donald Trump had made no secret of his desire to win this year's prize.

Since returning to the White House for his second term in January, the US leader has repeatedly insisted that he "deserves" the Nobel for his role in resolving numerous conflicts—a claim observers say is broadly exaggerated.

But Nobel Prize experts in Oslo had insisted in the run-up to Friday's announcement that Trump had no chance, noting that his "America First" policies run counter to the ideals of the Peace Prize as laid out in Alfred Nobel's 1895 will creating the award.

Frydnes insisted the Norwegian Nobel Committee is not swayed by lobbying campaigns to get the prize.

Last year, the prestigious prize went to the Japanese anti-nuclear group Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma and a prize sum of $1.2 million.

It will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prizes' creator, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.