Venezuelas Machado Defends Giving Nobel Medal to Donald Trump

Venezuela’s Opposition Leader Returns Nobel Peace Prize to Trump

Maria Corina Machado, the 2025 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has stated that she has “no regrets” about returning her medal to US President Donald Trump during a meeting at the White House in January. The transfer occurred two weeks after Trump ordered US special forces to seize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from Caracas.

Machado presented the medal to Trump, which is nontransferable and cannot be revoked or transferred to others, according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee. In a recent conference in Madrid, Machado stated that she was coordinating her return to Venezuela with the US government, citing mutual respect and understanding.

Trump described Machado’s presentation of the medal as a “wonderful gesture of mutual respect”. Machado had been living in hiding before leaving Venezuela in December to collect her prize in Oslo. She is currently working with the US government to plan her return to the country.

Machado’s decision to return the Nobel Peace Prize has sparked some controversy, with Trump publicly questioning her standing and backing Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as the country’s interim leader. Venezuela’s opposition last week called for presidential elections, but Machado has not yet announced whether she would participate in a future poll.

In Spain, Machado declined a meeting with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, citing his hosting of a progressive leaders’ summit in Barcelona as proof that the meeting was “not advisable”. This decision contrasts with her frequent encounters with Sanchez’s right-wing opponents.

Source: Al Jazeera