Donald Trump will host María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, at the White House on Thursday for high-level talks on the future of the oil-rich country following the US's ouster of Nicolás Maduro.
Many in Venezuela and abroad had expected Machado to take over after an elite US military team arrested Maduro in a raid on January 3 and transported him to a prison in New York.
But the White House has largely sidelined Machado, recognizing former Vice President Delcy Rodríguez as Venezuela's interim leader, even as Trump insists the US will "lead" the country.
A close ally of Rodríguez, Venezuela’s ambassador to the United Kingdom Félix Plasencia, was also expected to arrive in Washington on Thursday to meet with Trump officials as part of the dramatic rapprochement brought about by Maduro’s ouster. The official visit, the first in years, is reportedly intended in part to pave the way for the reopening of the Venezuelan embassy. Machado, 58, a former congresswoman, won a primary to run against Maduro in 2024 but was blocked by the government. Her replacement, retired diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia, was recognized by Washington as the legitimate winner of the presidential election after the opposition presented strong evidence that Maduro had lost by a wide margin.
Trump has given mixed signals about Machado’s role in Venezuela’s transition, questioning her domestic support. On the day of Maduro’s capture, he called Machado a “good woman” but said she lacked the “respect” needed to govern Venezuela. But whether Machado can convince Trump may depend less on her vision for Venezuela and more on the gold medal she was awarded for her work promoting democracy and human rights.
In an interview with Fox News last week, Machado said he wanted to “share” the prize with Trump, an idea rejected by Nobel organizers, who explained that the prize is indivisible. However, Trump told reporters it would be a “great honor” to accept it.
Trump has often expressed disappointment at being left out of the Nobel Prize, and it has been reported that Machado's acceptance of the prize, despite dedicating it in part to Trump, damaged her standing within the administration. "If she had refused it and said, 'I can't accept it because it belongs to Donald Trump,' she would be president of Venezuela today," a White House source told the Washington Post.
Meanwhile, Trump has forged a working relationship with Rodríguez, the interim president. Last week, Trump announced a deal with Venezuela’s interim leaders that he said would provide up to 50 million barrels of oil to the United States. He also signed an executive order to “protect” Venezuelan oil revenues in U.S.-controlled accounts.
After initially condemning Maduro’s capture, an operation that Venezuelan officials say killed at least 100 military and civilian personnel, Rodríguez has moved to work closely with the Trump administration to establish control over the country’s government and oil reserves. Since Maduro’s capture and ouster, Venezuelan officials have begun releasing political prisoners, including some U.S. citizens, in what Rodríguez described as “a step toward a new political moment.” NGOs that monitor political detentions say the process has been slow and estimate that as many as 1,000 people remain imprisoned. After their first phone call on Wednesday, which Trump called on Truth Social a “tremendous” step toward a “spectacular partnership” and Rodríguez described on Twitter/X as a “civilized discussion” on a bilateral agenda, Trump told reporters that the interim leader was a “wonderful person” with whom the U.S. has “worked very well.”
Since Trump's election, Machado has frequently praised him, calling him a "champion of freedom." In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, Machado insisted that her movement was prepared to win free elections in Venezuela and thanked Trump for ousting Maduro.
"I want to say today, on behalf of the Venezuelan people, how grateful we are for his courageous vision, the actions, historic actions, that he has taken against this narco-terrorist regime, to begin dismantling this structure and to bring Maduro to justice," she said.
In a separate interview with CBS last week, Machado noted that Rodríguez remains sanctioned by the US and argued that the interim president is in a "very critical position because no one trusts her."
When asked if she should be the next leader of Venezuela, Machado said: "Absolutely yes. We are ready and willing to serve our people," she said./ The Guardian
