Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Colina Machado traveled to Washington DC to meet US President Donald Trump at the White House following the abduction of her political rival, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Thursday’s meeting was the first opportunity for the two leaders to meet face-to-face.
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However, this visit was an unusually restrained one for Trump, who usually welcomes foreign leaders to the Oval Office and holds press conferences with reporters.
But this time, Trump kept his meeting with Machado private, avoiding clicking camera shutters and shouting questions from reporters.
Despite Machado’s insistence that the rebels have a mandate to govern, Trump supported Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s former vice president, as South America’s interim leader.
Rodriguez’s inaugural address coincided with Machado’s arrival at the White House, which may have contributed to the low-key nature of the talks.
“We’re used to seeing the president directing cameras, making comments, chatting,” Al Jazeera correspondent Mike Hanna reported in the evening in the capital.
“But in this particular case, (the meeting) took place behind closed doors. In fact, we didn’t even receive an official readout from the White House about the meeting with Mr. Machado.”
Still, Machado spoke upbeatly as he left the White House and strolled down Pennsylvania Avenue. It was filled with reporters and supporters seeking selfies.
She and President Trump spent only a few hours together at the White House, where they discussed Venezuela’s future over lunch.
Machado confirmed to the media that he had implemented plans to award Trump the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor long coveted by U.S. presidents.
“I presented the Nobel Peace Prize medal to the president of the United States,” Machado told reporters.
In presenting the award to Trump, Machado told a historical anecdote about the interaction between Simón Bolívar, a Venezuelan soldier who helped liberate much of South America from colonial rule, and the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolutionary War.
“I told him this: Listen to this: 200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simón Bolívar a medal with the face of George Washington on it,” Machado said. “From then on, Bolívar kept that medal for the rest of his life.”
However, the Nobel Committee made it clear that the prize is non-transferable and cannot be shared.
Machado was announced as the recipient of the award in October for his efforts to advance democracy in Venezuela.
“I dedicate this award to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his unwavering support of our cause,” Machado wrote on October 10. She secretly left Venezuela, where she had been living in hiding, in December and headed to Norway to receive her medal.
“Happy to serve”
Machado remains a popular figure within Venezuela’s opposition movement, which has faced repression and violence under President Maduro’s regime.
Human rights groups have accused Maduro of systematically suppressing the opposition and arresting opposition leaders.
As of January 11, the human rights group Foro Penal estimates there are 804 political prisoners in Venezuela, although some estimates put the population in the thousands.
Machado was previously a member of Venezuela’s parliament, but Maduro’s government removed her from office on suspicion of colluding with the president.
She is considered a strong candidate for the 2024 presidential election and received over 92 percent support in the October 2023 opposition primary.
However, in January 2024, she was again disqualified from the presidential position, and former diplomat Edmundo Gonzalez finally ran on behalf of the opposition coalition.
After the polls concluded in July 2024, the government did not publish the usual breakdown of the vote tally, leading to widespread protests over the lack of transparency. Opposition parties received voting results that appeared to have given Gonzalez a landslide victory, further fueling anger.
However, Maduro’s government supported his bid for three six-year terms as president.
The US military abducted Maduro from Venezuela on January 3 and transferred him to the US on suspicion of drug trafficking.
Mr. Machado then appeared on U.S. television to promote the Venezuelan opposition’s claim that he had a “mandate” to take over the presidency after Mr. Maduro was removed.
“We have a president-elect in Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, who is ready and willing to serve the people according to the mandate that has been placed upon us,” she told CBS News on January 7.
Fired Machado?
However, President Trump has expressed support for Rodriguez, describing him as cooperative.
“She’s someone we’ve worked very well with,” Trump said at a news conference Thursday. “I think we can get along very well with Venezuela.”
The US president previously said the US would “run” Venezuela. Last week, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt also told reporters that the Venezuelan government’s “decisions will continue to be made by the United States.”
Still, Mr. Rodriguez condemned the Jan. 3 attack on Venezuela as a violation of international law, and in Thursday’s State of the Union address he continued to express his continued allegiance to Chavismo, the political movement that Mr. Maduro followed.
She has also criticized US threats to her country’s sovereignty.
“We know that the United States is a lethal nuclear power. We have seen their track record in human history. We know and are not afraid to confront the United States diplomatically, through political dialogue if necessary, and resolve this historical contradiction once and for all,” Rodriguez said on Thursday.
“My brothers and sisters, members of Congress, regardless of your political affiliation, it doesn’t matter. We must unite as Venezuelans to defend our sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity, but also our dignity and honor.”
Nevertheless, she indicated that she intends to review Venezuela’s hydrocarbon laws to allow for increased foreign investment.
Renata Segura, head of the Latin America and Caribbean program at the nonprofit International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera that Rodriguez and the government have consistently maintained that Maduro remains Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
“We must not forget that Rodriguez and many other government officials in Caracas are adamant about the fact that the intervention against Maduro was unjustified. In fact, they are demanding Maduro’s release,” Segura said.
“So they haven’t changed the tone of the declaration 180 degrees, but they don’t have a lot of room for maneuver. So they’re really trying to appease Trump at this point.”
Still, President Trump has long dismissed the possibility of Machado as a replacement for Maduro or Rodriguez, saying on January 3 that Machado “is neither supported nor respected in this country.”
Segura believes the Trump administration’s choice to reject Machado as Venezuela’s leader in the name of stability is understandable.
However, she added that Machado is clearly the leader of the opposition and her coalition therefore needs to be part of any future government.
“It would be very unfair if there were to be a dialogue between the Chavismo regime without President Maduro and the Trump administration without someone who truly represents the feelings of the Venezuelan people,” Segura said.
