In 1980 Adolfo Pérez Esquivel received the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to the U.S. backed military dictatorship in Argentina which forcibly disappeared up to 30,000 people between 1976 -1983. Pérez Esquivel was detained, tortured and held without trial during the dictatorship’s dirty war against the “internal enemy”. He is a renowned human rights defender who though his “constant presence, commitment, action and voice on behalf of the peoples’ struggles for liberation and self-determination has become a symbol in Latin America, the continent and throughout the world.”
On October 14, 2025 Adolfo Pérez Esquivel published an Open Letter to this year’s Nobel recipient, Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela, challenging her allegiance to the United States and participation acts of war against her country, for dedicating the prize to Trump, and for being an “instrument of empire.” Read this important letter.