Venezuela: Machado says she wants to give Trump her Nobel Peace Prize

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado announced she is planning to return to her country “as soon as possible” and said she wants to give her recently-awarded Nobel Peace Prize to United States President Donald Trump to thank him for his government’s military operation in Venezuela to capture Nicolás Maduro. In an interview with Fox News, she said she wants to meet with the U.S. leader to personally tell him that she “and the Venezuelan people” want to “give it to him, share it with him.” Her comments come amid rumors in the U.S. press that Trump snubbed her and didn’t support her as a replacement for Maduro because she accepted the prize, instead of conceding it to him. A report by The Washington Post quoting two people close to the White House said that Trump’s sudden disinterest in supporting Machado’s leadership stemmed from the fact that she accepted the award instead of giving it to him directly. Other outlets, including The New York Times, suggested the snub had to do with the fact that Machado and her party would have issues running the country because they don’t have enough influence over the Venezuelan armed forces and could even further destabilize the country.  Trump has publicly said that Machado “doesn’t have the respect within the country,” to run it. Instead, the U.S. government is working with former Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who was sworn in as interim president on Monday. “What he has done is historic, it’s a huge step for the democratic transition,” Machado stated regarding the attack carried out by U.S. forces in the early hours of Saturday in Caracas and neighboring areas. Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 10. She dedicated the award to Trump for his support to her cause. In the interview, she said the two spoke on the day the prize was announced, but that they haven’t spoken since. She added that January 3 “will go down in history as the day justice defeated a tyranny” and that it was a milestone not only for Venezuelans but also for “humanity, freedom and human dignity.” Return to Venezuela Machado said that she is planning to return to Venezuela “as soon as possible.” She spent several months in hiding in her own country before leaving last month to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony in Norway, and her whereabouts are currently unknown due to security reasons. The opposition leader stated that after her party “won by a landslide” in the July 2024 presidential elections “under fraudulent conditions,” she trusts that “in free and fair elections” they will “win with over 90% of the vote.” Edmundo González Urrutia — currently exiled in Spain — ran for president in 2024 replacing Machado after she was banned from taking part in the elections by the Maduro administration. In a recent video, he celebrated the U.S. operation and called himself the “president of Venezuela.” Machado added that if her party, Vente Venezuela, were to rule, they would dismantle “the criminal hub of the Americas” — as she referred to her country  — and turn it into a “security shield,” while also making the country “the energy hub of the Americas,” opening markets and “bringing security” to foreign investments. She also promised they would bring back the millions of Venezuelans currently living abroad. You may also be interested in: Maduro says he was ‘kidnapped,’ pleads not guilty in New York federal court