Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to the people of Venezuela and U.S. President Donald Trump, citing his “decisive support” for her country’s pro-democracy movement.
In a post on X, Machado wrote, “I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause.
“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy,” she said.
The Nobel Committee awarded Machado the prize for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”
Machado has been in hiding in Venezuela for the past year after disputed elections in which authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro was accused of stealing the vote.
Reacting to the development, U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Machado called him to say she was accepting the award “in honor” of him.
Trump stated, “The person who got the Nobel Prize called me today and said, ‘I’m accepting this in honor of you because you really deserved it’… I didn’t say, ‘Give it to me’, though. I think she might have.
”I’ve been helping her along the way. They needed a lot of help in Venezuela during the disaster. I am happy because I saved millions of lives”.
The White House criticised the Nobel Committee’s decision to award Machado the prize, with spokesperson Steven Cheung saying, “President Trump will continue making peace deals, ending wars, and saving lives.
”He has the heart of a humanitarian, and there will never be anyone like him who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will.
”The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace”.
Machado had backed Trump’s ongoing campaign of military pressure on Maduro, including a major U.S. naval deployment near Venezuela, as a “necessary measure” towards a democratic transition in Venezuela.
