BY EMMANUEL OGBONNA
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said Thursday that she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House, describing the gesture as a tribute to what she called his “unique commitment to our freedom,” even as Trump has openly questioned her prospects of leading Venezuela following the U.S.-led ouster of longtime ruler Nicolás Maduro.
Machado offered few details about the exchange and did not say whether Trump accepted the medal. The White House also declined to clarify what became of it. The Nobel Institute, which awarded Machado the Peace Prize, had previously said the medal could not be transferred, while the White House had indicated ahead of the meeting that any decision on accepting it would be left entirely to the president.
“I presented the President of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters after leaving the White House and heading to Capitol Hill. She said the gesture was intended as recognition for Trump’s role in confronting Venezuela’s authoritarian leadership and supporting the country’s democratic aspirations.
Even if the offering proves to be symbolic, it underscored the unusual and at times uneasy relationship between Trump and Venezuela’s most prominent opposition figure. Trump has stopped short of backing Machado as Venezuela’s next leader following the dramatic U.S. military raid earlier this month that resulted in Maduro’s capture. He has also avoided committing to a clear timeline for new elections, raising doubts among democracy advocates about Washington’s longer-term intentions.
Machado suggested that Trump provided few specifics during their closed-door discussion on how or when Venezuela might return to democratic rule.
Before her visit to Washington, Machado had largely remained out of public view since traveling to Norway last month, where her daughter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on her behalf. Machado had spent nearly a year in hiding inside Venezuela before resurfacing abroad after the award ceremony.
After her White House meeting, she emerged to greet dozens of cheering supporters gathered near the gates, stopping to hug many of them. “We can count on President Trump,” she told the crowd, prompting brief chants of “Thank you, Trump,” though she did not expand on what assurances, if any, she had received.
Trump himself did not publicly comment on the meeting. The celebratory scene outside the White House contrasted sharply with the administration’s signals that it is prepared to work with Venezuela’s interim leadership under acting President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former deputy. Rodríguez, along with other figures from Maduro’s inner circle, continues to oversee day-to-day government operations and delivered her first state of the union address during Machado’s Washington visit.
By engaging Rodríguez, Trump has effectively sidelined Machado, who for years has been a leading symbol of resistance to Venezuela’s ruling party. While Machado and Trump were meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described her as “a remarkable and brave voice,” but emphasized that the encounter did not represent a shift in the president’s assessment of her political viability.
Trump has repeatedly said Machado would struggle to govern because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country,” despite widespread belief that her political movement won the disputed 2024 election that Maduro’s government claimed as a victory. Leavitt said Trump supports new elections in Venezuela “when the time is right,” without offering a timeline.
Leavitt added that Machado had requested the meeting without setting specific expectations and that the discussion was meant to be frank and constructive. Machado had previously suggested she would be willing to share the Nobel Peace Prize she received last year, an honor Trump has long coveted.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado,” Leavitt said, aside from engaging in a realistic discussion about conditions inside Venezuela. Machado spent roughly two and a half hours at the White House before moving on to Capitol Hill.
There, she met privately with a bipartisan group of senators. Her remarks about presenting the Nobel medal to Trump came after those talks. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said Machado warned lawmakers that without tangible progress toward a transition of power or elections in the coming months, the situation could deteriorate further.
“She reminded us that Delcy Rodríguez is, in many ways, worse than Maduro,” Murphy said, adding that Machado did not relay any concrete commitments from the White House regarding elections. “No, I don’t think she got any commitment from them,” he said.
Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio struck a more celebratory tone, calling Machado’s message unmistakable. “What President Trump did was the most important, significant event in Latin America,” Moreno said, referring to Maduro’s removal. “Getting rid of Maduro was absolutely essential.”
Machado’s Washington visit coincided with an intensifying U.S. campaign against Venezuela’s energy sector. U.S. forces in the Caribbean recently seized another sanctioned oil tanker that officials say was linked to Venezuela, part of a broader effort to assert control over the country’s oil industry. Earlier this month, U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife at a heavily guarded compound in Caracas and transported them to New York to face drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said Venezuela’s interim authorities have cooperated fully with the Trump administration and indicated plans to release additional prisoners detained under Maduro’s rule. Five Americans were among those freed this week. Rodríguez, who initially reacted sharply to Maduro’s removal, has since adopted a more pragmatic tone toward Washington, suggesting she can work within the framework of Trump’s “America First” approach to the region.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro’s ouster.
Despite Machado’s international profile and the Nobel recognition, Trump has shown little inclination to endorse her leadership. Within hours of Maduro’s capture, he remarked that it would be “very tough” for her to lead Venezuela. Machado has since navigated carefully to avoid alienating the U.S. president, particularly after receiving the peace prize.
An industrial engineer and the daughter of a steel magnate, Machado emerged as a political force in 2004 when she co-founded the civic group Súmate, which pushed for a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The effort failed, and she and other organizers were charged with conspiracy. A year later, she angered Chávez again by traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush, an encounter memorialized in a photograph that became politically explosive in Venezuela.
Nearly two decades later, Machado galvanized millions of voters against Chávez’s successor, Maduro, in the 2024 election. Despite credible evidence that the opposition prevailed, government-aligned electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner. The decision sparked mass protests that were met with a harsh crackdown by security forces, setting the stage for the upheaval that has since reshaped Venezuela’s political landscape.
Original article
Comments