Machado | Pakistan

Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Saturday she had “no regrets” about symbolically handing over her Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump back in January. “There is a leader in the world, a head of state in the world who risked the lives of his country’s citizens for Venezuela’s freedom,” she told a news conference in Madrid. Machado presented her Nobel prize to Trump when she met him in the White House just two weeks after he ordered US forces to attack Caracas and snatch Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Trump, who has long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, is currently embroiled in the Middle East war he started with his ally, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with airstrikes on Iran at the end of February. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the peace prize, made clear after Machado handed her 2025 Nobel medal to Trump that the actual honour it represents “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others”. Machado said that Trump’s military operation to s...

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gave her Nobel Peace Prize medal to US President Donald Trump on Thursday during a White House meeting, as she tries to gain some influence over how the president shapes the South American country’s political future. A White House official confirmed that Trump intends to keep the medal. In a social media post on Thursday evening, Trump wrote: “Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you Maria!” Machado, who described the meeting as “excellent,” said the gift was in recognition of what she called his commitment to the freedom of the Venezuelan people. Machado’s attempt to sway Trump came after he dismissed the idea of installing her as Venezuela’s leader to replace the deposed Nicolas Maduro. Trump openly campaigned for the prize before Machado was awarded it last month and complained bitterly when he was snubbed. Though Machado gave Trump the gold medal that honorees receive with...

Venezuela’s Maria Corina Machado is safe and will be in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said in a statement on Wednesday. Earlier, the organisers said the Venezuelan opposition leader, who lives in hiding, will not attend Wednesday’s Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, and the award will be accepted by her daughter. Machado has only been seen once in public since going underground in August last year, amidst a tense showdown with President Nicolas Maduro. Venezuela’s attorney general has said the 58-year-old would be considered a “fugitive” if she left the country to accept the award. It was not known in the hours before the ceremony whether Machado was in Norway for the event due to start at 1pm (5pm PKT). The Nobel Institute finally confirmed that she would not be there. “It will be her daughter Ana Corina Machado who will receive the prize in her mother’s name,” Nobel Institute director Kristian Berg Harpviken told Norway’s NRK radio. “Her daughter will give the speech that Maria Corina herself wrote.” Harpvik...