GUEST BLOG: Ian Powell – The Ignoble Nobel: from Hitler to Kissinger to Machado

Much to the disappointment of US President Donald Trump, on 10 October the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Maria Corina Machado.

In the words of the Committee the award was “…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.”

I’ll come back to this claim further below. But first it is important to understand better the politics of the Peace Prize committee.

Potted history of politics of Nobel Prize Committee

The committee was established in 1900. At that time, it genuinely believed that the peace prize should be awarded to those who, hand-on-heart, did believe in peaceful solutions and non-violence.

From 1901 the first brace of recipients were Jean Henry Dumont, the Swiss founder of the Red Cross, and Frédéric Passy, the French founder of the International League for a Permanent Peace.

However, this focus abruptly changed as early as five years later. In 1906 the prize was awarded to US President Theodore Roosevelt who had previously led a particularly brutally violent war in Cuba and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Tariq Ali provided a revealing potted history of the Nobel prize committee’s first century

A potted history of the politics of the Nobel Peace Prize was covered by an article by Tariq Ali in The Guardian as long ago as 7 December 2002 under the same heading as this blog: Ignoble Nobel.

In Ali’s words:

Throughout the 1920s, the committee reflected a pathetic helplessness in the face of a growing crisis. Politicians, usually of the same liberal-conservative stripe, were regularly rewarded. During the 1930s, world politics was dominated by the fascist victories in Italy, Germany and Spain, the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the eruption of a mass non-violent struggle against the British empire in India.

The sickening height of hypocrisy: Adolf Hitler short listed with Mahatma Gandhi!

In 1938 the Nobel committee found itself considering a shortlist for the prize headed by German Nazi dictator and genocidal murderer Adolf Hitler and Indian non-violence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

One can easily understand the latter. But to even consider Hitler!!! At the time he had just invaded the Rhineland. Well before he had replaced Germany’s formal democracy with a viciously repressive dictatorship.

In fact, as Ali reports, the choice proved too difficult for the “mandarins” who instead opted for the Nansen International Office of Refugees.

Fast-forwarding to today: other options

Fast-forward to 16 October 2025 with the following Facebook post from Tariq Ali quoting from his comments to the Norwegian progressive daily, Klassekampen, on his views on the “Nobel War Prize”:

It was obvious that even the craven Nobel War Prize Committee could not give it to Trump. The next best thing was to consult their usual contacts in the intelligence services and ask for advice. So the blood-drenched prize went to Macahado [sic] who Trump wants to make Venezuela’s next President. She wants the US to invade her country and force through regime-change. And she immediately offered the prize to Trump. This not a big surprise. What is obvious is that this Committee is past its sell by date.

Gaza Peace Flotilla a ‘Nobel’ choice in contrast with the ignoble Machado

If Nobel was a genuine peace prize, Ali added, it should have been given to “…a number of people or collectively to the Peace Flotilla…”

I would add as another option the Palestinian victims of ethnic cleansing through genocide in Gaza. Or, perhaps, the courageous Jews living in Israel who oppose this ethnic cleansing.

Or the courageous and committed health professionals in Gaza, many of whom have been killed, maimed, or imprisoned and tortured.

From commendable to grotesque to ridiculous

Nelson Mandela one of the commendable awards

There have, of course, been occasional commendable awards since the Hitler versus Gandhi abomination.

This list includes Martin Luther King Jr. (1964), Adolfo Pérez Esquivel (1980), South African bishop Desmond Tutu (1984), and Nelson Mandela (1993).

Henry Kissinger award irrevocably tarnished Nobel Committee

However, the awarding of the prize Henry Kissinger in 1973 irrevocably tarnished the original idea of honouring those who strove for peace and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Kissinger deserves the label of ‘serial killer’ because of his responsibility for the brutal bombing of Vietnam and the destabilisation of ‘politically unacceptable’ democratic processes, such as in Salvador Allende’s Chile.

Then we had the ridiculous. US President Barack Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize, oddly awarded just a few months after he took office in early 2009.

The citation said it was “…for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples…”

But he had done very little, if anything at all, in these areas. Making a further mockery of the award, during his eight years in office Obama never ceased to wage wars and conduct military operations abroad.

He authorised 563 attacks, primarily drone strikes, to eliminate “terrorist targets” in Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen; much more than his war mongering predecessor George W. Bush’s ordered 57 during his eight years

María Corina Machado

María Corina Machado’s award continues the pattern from Roosevelt to Hitler (almost) and Kissinger. She has long been a fervent advocate of violence in Venezuela since the election of Hugo Chávez Frías as President December 1998.

María Corina Machado a pro-fascist who embodies violence

She participated in the planning of a coup attempt April 2002 that failed to end Chávez’s life by a miracle.

She travelled to Washington to meet with President George W. Bush seeking support to overthrow Venezuela’s constitutional government. This proposed American military intervention would have resulted in a bloodbath in Venezuela.

In 2014 Machado supported far right armed attempts to overthrow the government. Machado also appeared on the international stage as a Panama ‘alternate ambassador’ while still a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly.

In this ‘alternate’ role she urged the OAS Permanent Council to authorise a multinational military intervention against Venezuela in order to overthrow its government.

Over the years, Machado  has repeatedly urged foreign intervention to overthrow the Venezuelan government while consistently dismissing any criticism of armed violence from the armed political far right.

Machado spent many years urging the governments of the United States and the European Union to impose harsh economic sanctions and a wide range of other measures against Venezuela.

She was also investigated for conspiracy after a non-government organisation she founded and directed received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a programme financed by the US Congress, for campaigns aimed at destabilising the Venezuelan government.

She is also silent on the genocide in Gaza while even advocating that Israel should militarily intervene in Venezuela.

No surprises; just consistency

Machado embodies fascist violence. In most countries, she would face severe legal action for her actions. Consequently there was no surprise that she dedicated her Nobel Prize to Donald Trump, a fellow attempted insurrectionist.

There is also no surprise at all in the Nobel Prize committee awarding the misnamed peace prize to someone of the violent far right politics such as Machado.

The genocidal Benjamin Netanyahu would have deserved being the recipient based on the committee’s history.

This is what should be expected from an organisation that once short-listed Adolf Hitler and subsequently awarded it to a ‘serial killer’ (Henry Kissinger).

Ian Powell was Executive Director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, the professional union representing senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand, for over 30 years, until December 2019. He is now a health systems, labour market, and political commentator living in the small river estuary community of Otaihanga (the place by the tide). First published at Political Bytes