Venezuelan leader María Corina Machado handed over her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday (15), even as he questioned her credibility to take over the country after the US deposed then-president Nicolás Maduro.
The Nobel Institute said Machado could not give her prize to Trump, an honor he covets. Even if the gesture turns out to be purely symbolic, it was extraordinary given that Trump effectively sidelined Machado, who has long been the face of resistance in Venezuela. He signaled his willingness to work with interim President Delcy Rodríguez, who was Maduro’s second-in-command.
“I presented the President of the United States with the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters after leaving the White House and heading to the Capitol. She said she did so “as recognition of his unique commitment to our freedom”.
Trump later confirmed on social media that Machado left the medal for him to keep, and said it was an honor to meet her.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I did,” Trump said in his post. “A wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you, María!”
The White House later posted a photo of Machado alongside Trump in the Oval Office as he holds the medal in a large frame. Text on the frame reads: “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to ensure a free Venezuela”.
Trump raised doubts about his stated commitment to support a democratic government in Venezuela, without giving a timeline for when elections might be held. Machado indicated that he provided few details on this during their discussion.
She provided no further information on what was said.
‘We can count on President Trump’
After the closed-door meeting, Machado greeted dozens of enthusiastic supporters waiting for her near the White House gates, stopping to hug many. “We can count on President Trump,” she told them without elaborating, which led some to briefly chant: “Thank you, Trump”.
Before her Washington visit, Machado had not been seen in public since traveling last month to Norway, where her daughter received the peace prize on her behalf. She spent 11 months in hiding in Venezuela before appearing in Norway after the ceremony.
The jubilant scene after her meeting with Trump contrasted with the political realities in Venezuela. Rodríguez remains in charge of the government’s daily operations, along with others from Maduro’s inner circle. In her first state of the union address on Thursday, the interim president promoted resuming diplomatic ties between the historic adversaries and advocated opening the state oil industry to more foreign investment after Trump promised to take control of Venezuelan oil sales.
Trump said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “lacks internal support or respect in the country”. Her party is widely regarded as the winner of the 2024 elections, rejected by Maduro.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and courageous voice,” but also said the meeting did not mean Trump’s opinion of her had changed, calling it “a realistic assessment”.
Leavitt told reporters that Trump supports new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right,” but did not say when he thought that might be.
A ‘frank and positive discussion’ about Venezuela’
Leavitt said Machado sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations about what would happen. She spent about two and a half hours at the White House.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Mrs. Machado,” the press secretary said while the meeting was still ongoing, except to have a “frank and positive discussion about what’s happening in Venezuela”.
After leaving the White House, Machado headed to a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Machado told them that “if there’s no real progress toward a power transition and/or elections in the coming months, we should all be concerned”.
“She reminded us that Delcy Rodríguez is, in many ways, worse than Maduro,” he added.
Asked if Machado had heard any commitment from the White House about holding elections in Venezuela, Murphy said: “No, I don’t think she got any commitment from them”.
Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, was ecstatic after the meeting, saying Machado “delivered a clear and loud message: What President Trump did was the most important and significant event in Latin America. Getting rid of Maduro was absolutely essential”.
Machado’s stop in Washington coincided with U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seizing another sanctioned tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife less than two weeks ago in a heavily guarded complex in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and brought them to New York for trial on drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said the interim Venezuelan authorities have been fully cooperating with the Trump administration and noted that Rodríguez’s government said it plans to release more prisoners detained under Maduro. Among those released were five Americans this week.
Trump said on Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, the first since Maduro was deposed.
Machado does not get Trump’s endorsement’
Just hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very difficult for her to be the leader”. Machado navigated a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning the peace prize, and sought to cultivate relations with him and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate, Machado began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the non-governmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to revoke then-president Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the ire of Chávez and his allies again by traveling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush, whom Chávez considered an adversary.
Nearly two decades later, she mobilized millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 elections. But election authorities loyal to the ruling party declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Subsequent anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown.
Source: npr.org & AP