The Nobel Peace Prize was on Friday awarded to Venezuela¡¯s opposition leader and democracy activist Maria Corina Machado, a ¡°unifying¡± figure in what has become a ¡°brutal¡± state, the Nobel jury said.

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 58-year-old opposition leader could be heard saying in a video sent to media by her press team.