Trump to meet Venezuela’s Machado and says it would be ‘honor’ to take her Nobel
www.independent.co.uk
The president has said it would be ‘tough’ for opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to lead Venezuela after he removed Nicolas Maduro

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41381866

Donald Trump has said it would be “an honor” take Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize if she offered it to him, as he prepares to meet the exiled politician next week.

Machado has been in hiding due to persistent threats on her life, emerging only briefly in Oslo after a three-day mission in which she was smuggled out of the country with the help of the U.S. military for the Nobel ceremony.

  • El Barto@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    20 hours ago

    Um. Nah. I don’t agree with you. I will give you that she is an opportunistic politician.

    But this “neo whatever zionist”, nah. She’s part of the old school Venezuelan political system that was in place prior to Chávez/Maduro. Whether that’s good or bad, I’ll leave to others to decide.

    But does she want peace and freedom for Venezuela? Has she done more and sacrificed more than you or me combined to make that happen? Absolutely.

    Kinda of two-faced of you to criticize her for receiving the nobel prize given your comment history.

    • Avicenna@programming.devEnglish
      1·
      3 hours ago

      She addressed the far right European movement Patriots of Europe. This movement is endorsed by people like Marine Le Pen, Viktor Orban, Milei etc major players of today’s world pushing world actively to extreme right, bigotry, sexism, anti-immigration and anti-muslim policies etc you name it. The slogan of this group is “Make Europe Great Again”, that should tell you all you need about this group.

      She congratulated Netanyahu on his “decisive actions” in the “war” in Gaza, declared that “the struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel,” and has promised to move Venezuela’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which would violate international law.

      I don’t know how much she has done for Venezuela, can’t comment on that but if you work with groups that are actively pushing the world to shit, I find it hard to believe that her own goals for her own country can be that good. Far right politics is generally about power and personal gain at the expense of masses.

      I also don’t know if she is actively a zionist but she has no qualms about supporting zionist and far-right agendas so she can get some bit of political power in her corner of the world. I wouldn’t let her walk past near the nobel peace prize. Not that that prize has any credibility any more.

      • El Barto@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        13 hours ago

        Can you show me some sources, please? I’m genuinely curious and I’m willing to learn.

        • Avicenna@programming.devEnglish
          1·
          28 minutes ago

          I can though these are relatively common knowledge and easy to find on internet too. It has even made to wikipedia.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/María_Corina_Machado#Foreign_policy

          Openly anti-communist, Machado is a signatory of the 2020 Madrid Charter.[131][132] In February 2025, Machado addressed a Patriots for Europe rally in Madrid.[133][134] Machado called Javier Milei’s victory in the 2023 Argentine presidential election a triumph in the fight for “change” and “freedom” in Latin America,[135] and said that their political projects shared a common thread in the “fundamental role of freedom” professed by Milei.[136] Machado is also a supporter of U.S. president Donald Trump, whom she described in 2025 as a “visionary” in relation to his opposition to the Maduro government in Venezuela.[137][138] Criticism of Machado has come from some Venezuelans who say she has not spoken forcefully against the deportation of Venezuelans under the second Trump administration.[117]

          After she won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, Machado stated that Trump “certainly deserves” to win the 2026 award as “in only nine months, so many conflicts have been solved or prevented”.[139][140] After he deployed the Navy to the Caribbean in 2025, Machado praised the Trump administration.[31][141] One of her advisors told The New York Times that she has coordinated with the Trump administration and that she has a plan for the first hundred hours after Maduro is deposed.

          Regarding the Israel–Palestine conflict, Machado expressed her solidarity with Israel following the 7 October attacks.[147] She thanked Israel for its support of Edmundo González as president-elect,[148] and previously of Guaidó as acting president.[149] Machado planned to reestablish diplomatic relations with Israel, which were cut by President Chávez in 2009 during the 2008–2009 Gaza war.[149] On a 17 October 2025 post on X (formerly Twitter), she said she called the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer thanks “for his warm congratulations to the people of Venezuela on our 2025 Nobel Peace Prize” and express support for Israel.[150] Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office said that Machado appreciated the ceasefire agreement that secured the release of Israeli hostages and supported Israel’s efforts against Iran, which she called a threat to both countries.[150] The Prime Minister’s Office also said that Machado generally supported Israel’s actions and decisions during the Gaza war and the related Gaza offensive.[151] In another post on X, she wrote that Venezuelans knew that achieving peace “requires immense courage, strength, and moral clarity to stand against the totalitarian forces that oppose us”.[152] Although Machado avoided mentioning Israel and Gaza, Israel presented her post as an endorsement of its Gaza offensive due to her calling out “the Iranian regime” as “a key supporter of the Maduro regime”, which she said also “backs terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis”.[152]

          https://latinoamerica21.com/en/maria-corina-machado-a-controversial-nobel-peace-prize/

          Machado has shifted from a conservative tendency (European liberalism/neoliberalism) to frequenting the global far right. In 2024 she drew closer to the Ibero-American far-right project Iberosphere, linked to Spain’s Vox party. And from February 2025 onward, Machado positioned herself more clearly by participating in “Europe Viva 25,” the summit of the Patriots for Europe (PfE) held in Madrid. The Patriots are a constellation of far-right European parties, very powerful in the European Parliament. At this forum, Machado and Milei were the star guests invited by Santiago Abascal (Vox). PfE includes parties such as Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s National Rally (RN), the Dutch Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom (PVV), and Matteo Salvini’s League (Lega), among others, with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud as an observer.

          At the convention—whose slogan, “Make Europe Great Again,” leaves little to the imagination—the cream of the continent’s far right was present, seasoned leaders in dismantling European democracies. The speakers’ narrative delved into the old litany of ultranationalist victimhood. Their bête noires are global multilateral institutions such as the UN, the WHO, or the ICC, as well as the European Union and Muslims.

          Machado thanked the forum for the invitation and welcomed the “awakening of European societies” and their appreciation of freedom, hinting at a retreat of democracy in Europe. Nor was there any lack of jubilation—shared by those present—over Donald Trump’s return to the White House. As for Netanyahu, the relationship is longstanding: at the time she congratulated him on his “decisive actions” in the “war” in Gaza and has promised to move Venezuela’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which would violate international law.

          I have not vetted the credibility of this particular news source but the quotes and stuff I put here appeared in multiple news outlets so I don’t doubt their reality.