Venezuelan Machado voices no remorse over presenting Trump with Nobel Peace Prize

A combination of pictures taken on January 14, 2026, shows US President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, DC, on March 26, 2025, and Nobel peace laureate Maria Corina Machado in Oslo, Norway, on December 11, 2025, ahead of their meeting on January 15.

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US President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, whose pro-democracy movement he has sidelined since toppling her country’s leader, and whose Nobel Peace Prize he openly envies, on January 15.

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Machado’s White House visit comes a day after Trump used glowing terms to describe his first known call with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodriguez, confirming his satisfaction with the allies of Nicolas Maduro remaining in power, for now at least.

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Venezuela’s opposition leader Maria Corina Machado said on Saturday “I have no regrets” about symbolically handing over her Nobel Peace Prize to US President Donald Trump back in January, citing his efforts for Venezuela’s freedom.

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She told a news conference in Madrid that “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”, referring to Trump’s decision to order US forces to attack Caracas and snatch Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

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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.

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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”.

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Machado said that Trump’s military operation to snatch Maduro, who is currently detained in New York facing US drug charges, “is something we Venezuelans will never forget”.

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She stated “Consequently, no, I have no regrets” about gifting her Nobel medal to Trump, emphasizing the significance of his actions for Venezuela.

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Machado, who was in hiding before leaving Venezuela in December to collect her Nobel prize in Oslo, said she was organising her return to the country in coordination with Washington.

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She noted that she was “speaking with the US government, and we are working in coordination, with mutual respect and understanding”, highlighting the importance of Washington’s role in Venezuela’s democratic transition.

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Machado believed that Washington was “key to advancing a democratic transition” in Venezuela, as the country’s opposition called for presidential elections last week.

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Machado, who has not yet said if she would run in a future poll, was banned from running for president in the 2024 election that resulted with Maduro claiming a reelection victory.