Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace laureate María Corina Machado met with President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, D.C. earlier today, almost two weeks after a U.S. special forces team made a daring incursion into Caracas, capturing Machado’s long-time political adversary and former Venezuelan strongman, Nicolás Maduro.
Machado, who has led an opposition coalition alongside Edmundo González, the declared “legitimate” President of Venezuela following the 2024 elections, is attempting to persuade the Trump administration to engage in a more aggressive approach to displace the ruling socialist regime in Caracas, which at the moment is being led by Acting President and Maduro’s No. 2, Delcy Rodríguez and Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello.
Reports suggest that the Trump team remained consistent in its “realistic assessment” of the political situation in Caracas after their lunch meeting with Machado. Corina Machado has repeatedly floated the idea of dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize award to the U.S. president and calling him the “President of Peace.”
Critics have also accused Trump of betraying Machado and Edmundo González after he issued statements of praise for Venezuela’s interim leader, Rodríguez, and thereby betraying the Venezuelan freedom movement by extension.
The Trump White House and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have repeatedly stated that Machado and the González opposition coalition do not have the political influence that is necessary to exert their democratic policy agenda with the Venezuelan people, making any U.S.-led leadership transition in Caracas very likely, unfeasible.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt stated in a press briefing that the meeting was a “good and productive conversation because she [Machado] is a brave, outstanding voice of the Venezuelan people.”
Leavitt also affirmed that there will be elections held in Venezuela.
