Nobel Peace Prize winner Corina Machado dedicates award to Trump

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize on Oct 10 to the people of Venezuela – and US President Donald Trump, for his “decisive support” for her country’s pro-democracy movement.

“I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!” she wrote on X.

“We are on the threshold of victory and today, more than ever, we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our principal allies to achieve Freedom and democracy,” she added.

Ms Machado has been in hiding in Venezuela for the past year since elections that authoritarian leftist President Nicolas Maduro is accused of stealing.

Ms Machado, who was barred from contesting the election, campaigned instead for her stand-in, ex-diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, seen by much of the international community as the rightful winner.

The Nobel Committee cited her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.

Ms Machado, 58, has backed Mr Trump’s ongoing campaign of military pressure on Mr Maduro, including a major US naval deployment near Venezuela, as a “necessary measure” towards a democratic transition in Venezuela.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt shared Ms Machado’s post dedicating her Nobel to Mr Trump on her X account.

Several of Ms Machado’s fellow opposition leaders, including two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles, congratulated her on her prize.

“May this recognition be another (way) to achieve PEACE and for our Venezuela to leave behind the suffering and recover the freedom and democracy for which it has fought for so many years,” Mr Capriles wrote on X.