Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado says that she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump at a private White House meeting on Thursday.
“I think today is a historic day for us Venezuelans,” she said after meeting Trump, the first time the two have met in-person. It came weeks after US forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in Caracas and charged him in a drug-trafficking case.
Trump expressed his gratitude in a social media post, saying the move was “a wonderful gesture of mutual respect”.
The US president has declined to endorse Machado, whose movement claimed victory in 2024’s widely contested elections, as Venezuela’s new leader.
Trump has instead been dealing with the acting head of state in Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice-president.
But he said meeting Machado was a “great honor”, calling her a “wonderful woman who has been through so much”.
After leaving the White House, Machado spoke to supporters gathered at the gates outside, telling them in Spanish, according to the Associated Press: “We can count on President Trump.”
“I presented the president of the United States the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado later told journalists in English, calling it “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom”.
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Trump, who often speaks about his desire to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, had expressed displeasure when it was given to Machado and she decided to accept the honour last year.
The BBC has reached out to the White House for comment.
Machado said last week that she would share it with Trump, but the Nobel Committee later clarified that it was not transferable.
“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” the committee said in a statement last week. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”
Asked for a reaction to Machado’s remarks, the committee directed the BBC to their previous statement.
Before the White House meeting on Thursday, the Nobel Peace Center posted on X that “a medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot”.
In her remarks, Machado described how the Marquis de Lafayette, who fought in America’s Revolutionary War, gave a medal bearing the likeness of George Washington to Simon Bolivar, one of the founding fathers of modern Venezuela.
The gift was “a sign of the brotherhood” between her country and the US “in their fight for freedom against tyranny,” Machado said.
“And 200 years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal – in this case a medal of the Nobel Peace Prize – as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she said.
Machado also visited Congress to meet US senators during her visit to Washington, where her remarks to reporters were drowned out by supporters chanting “María, presidente” and waving Venezuelan flags.
– BBC News
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