Trump to meet Venezuela’s María Corina Machado on Thursday
Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will meet with President Donald Trump on Thursday, the White House has confirmed.
The visit comes just weeks after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was captured by US forces in Caracas. But Trump has refused to endorse Machado as the new leader, whose movement has claimed victory in widely disputed elections in 2024.
The United States instead backed Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez.
Machado said last week that he hoped to personally thank Trump for his action against Maduro and wanted to award him the Nobel Prize. Trump called it a “great honour” but the Nobel Committee later declared it was non-transferable.
Trump had previously expressed his displeasure with Machado’s decision to accept the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor the president has long coveted.
Asked Friday whether receiving Machado’s award would change his view of his role in Venezuela, the president said, “He may have been involved in some of this.”
“I’ll have to talk to him. I think it’s sweet that he wants to come in. And I understand that’s why,” he said.
Following Maduro’s ouster earlier this month, Trump said Machado “does not have support or respect within the country.” “She’s a very nice woman, but she has no respect,” he said.
The United States has so far supported Delcy Rodríguez as interim president of Venezuela.
Trump describes Rodríguez as an “ally” and he has not been charged with any crime by U.S. authorities.
“Delcy Rodríguez and her team were very cooperative with the United States,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. he said.
But Machado argued that his coalition should “absolutely” take responsibility for the country.
Machado said no one trusts Rodríguez, telling CBS that the interim leader was “one of the main architects of the repression of innocent people” in the South American country.
“Everyone in Venezuela and abroad knows very well who he is and the role he plays,” Machado said.
The former lawmaker, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year, called US military action in Venezuela “a major step towards restoring prosperity, the rule of law and democracy in Venezuela.”
Rodríguez rejected Trump’s claims that the United States is responsible for Venezuela.
“The Venezuelan government runs our country and no one else runs it,” he said in a televised speech. “There are no foreign agents running Venezuela.”
