WASHINGTON – Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she presented U.S. President Donald Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal during a White House meeting on Thursday, part of an overt bid to increase her sway in Caracas less than two weeks after U.S. special forces captured Nicolás Maduro in a January 3 raid. She described the encounter as “great” and declined to say whether Mr Trump accepted the medal.
The meeting underscored a fast-moving reordering of Venezuela’s politics with international reverberations. Rather than backing Machado to head a transition, Mr Trump has so far thrown his support behind acting president Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Chavista heavyweight, while Washington tightens its grip on Venezuela’s oil revenues and signals a drawn‑out timetable for new elections.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said ahead of the meeting that Mr Trump expected a “good and positive discussion” with Machado, who “is really a remarkable and brave voice for many of the people of Venezuela.” Afterward, she added: “They have thus far met all of the demands and requests of the United States and of the president. The president likes what he’s seeing and will expect that co-operation to continue.”
Mr Trump has openly questioned Machado’s viability. Hours after the January 3 operation, he said it would be difficult for her to run the country, adding that he did not believe she had “support” or “respect” in Venezuela – despite her winning more than 90 percent in the opposition’s 2023 primary. Multiple independent tallies at the time showed Machado taking roughly 93 percent of the vote in a landslide contest organized by the opposition. (voanews.com)
Washington’s bet on an interim leader
The White House said Mr Trump has made a “realistic assessment” of Machado’s popular support while declining to provide a timetable for elections or to specify what benchmarks would trigger a shift in U.S. backing. Ms Leavitt said the president is “pleased so far” with how Ms Rodríguez and her government have run Venezuela, praising steps such as limited political‑prisoner releases, including aides close to Machado. Mr Trump spoke with Rodríguez on Wednesday; U.S. officials were expected to meet one of her envoys in Washington on Thursday as part of what aides describe as a structured but still informal channel to the interim authorities.
Rodríguez, a former vice president and foreign minister who has faced U.S. and European sanctions, has moved quickly to court investment and reset relations with creditors and neighboring governments. On Thursday she proposed reforms to Venezuela’s hydrocarbons framework to attract foreign capital, particularly from U.S. firms, signaling a sharp turn from the Maduro era’s restrictions. (reuters.com) Her allies argue that a technocratic, caretaker role gives her more room than Machado to negotiate painful fiscal and subsidy changes before a national vote.
In parallel, Mr Trump last week signed an executive order shielding Venezuelan oil proceeds held in U.S. accounts from attachment by creditors, framing the funds as sovereign resources intended to stabilize the country during the transition. (reuters.com) The move effectively gives Washington temporary trusteeship over billions of dollars in revenue, deepening U.S. leverage over both Rodríguez and her rivals while postponing long‑running legal battles in U.S. courts.
What a Nobel can – and cannot – confer
Machado’s gesture aimed at healing a rift over the Nobel – an honor Mr Trump has long coveted and that she has repeatedly credited with amplifying Venezuela’s plight abroad – collided with the rules that govern it. The Norwegian Nobel Institute has made clear that once awarded, a Nobel Prize “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others.” The medal itself is a recipient’s property, but the distinction does not pass with it. (nobelpeaceprize.org) Her decision to physically hand over the medal, even symbolically, was thus less a legal act than a political one designed to flatter a U.S. president whose support she badly needs.
Mr Trump, who had said it would be a “great honour” to accept the award from her, told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not want her to present him with the prize.
“I didn’t say that. She won the Nobel Peace Prize,” Mr Trump said, while adding that he was “hearing” she might. “I shouldn’t be the one to say.”
The ambiguity left open whether the White House sees the episode as an awkward sideshow or as useful theater reinforcing Mr Trump’s claim that his Venezuela policy has international backing.
Oil, sanctions and leverage
Energy remains the fulcrum of U.S. leverage and the main channel through which policy decisions in Washington are reshaping daily life in Venezuela. Washington broadly eased energy sanctions in October 2023 to encourage electoral guarantees but reimposed core oil restrictions in April 2024 amid backsliding, forcing companies to wind down expanded Venezuelan transactions. Licenses for certain operators persisted, keeping a narrow channel for exports. Mr Trump has since pressed major oil companies to invest in Venezuela’s aging energy infrastructure and announced plans for Caracas to turn over billions of dollars in crude, positioning U.S. regulators and courts as gatekeepers for any rapid recovery in production. (apnews.com)
For Rodríguez, the promise of fresh investment and phased sanctions relief is a critical bargaining chip with domestic factions still loyal to Maduro. For Machado, it is a reminder that control of policy in Washington – not just votes at home – will shape who ultimately governs Caracas and on what terms.
Rules of the road – and historical echoes
Venezuela’s upheaval is unfolding against established international and U.S. legal frameworks that will help determine the durability and legitimacy of whatever government emerges. The United Nations Charter bars the “threat or use of force” against states’ territorial integrity or political independence except in narrow circumstances, and the U.S. War Powers Resolution requires the executive to seek congressional authorization for sustained hostilities, setting formal limits on how long U.S. forces can remain engaged without a vote. Past U.S. actions against foreign leaders – notably the 1989 capture of Panama’s Manuel Noriega during Operation Just Cause – remain rare precedents often debated in international law circles, and lawmakers in both parties have already signaled they want briefings on the Maduro raid and the legal rationale behind it.
Diplomats in Washington and the region are watching closely to see whether the administration can persuade allies that the mission conformed with these norms, or whether it will fuel calls for tighter constraints on cross‑border operations even as they applaud Maduro’s removal.
Machado’s mandate – and limits
Machado’s domestic standing draws on a sweeping mandate from the opposition’s 2023 primary, but she was barred from competing in the 2024 election by a Supreme Court aligned with Maduro, narrowing her pathways to formal power even before the current transition. Her aides have been detained and released in recent days, and she is working Capitol Hill for international backing while rallying Venezuela’s diaspora in the United States. (apnews.com) Advisers say her message to U.S. lawmakers is that ignoring her base in favor of a deal with Rodríguez risks repeating earlier, failed power‑sharing experiments.
She also sought to reassure conservatives in Washington by aligning with Mr Trump personally, a calculation that could grow more consequential if the White House continues to prioritize Rodríguez’s interim stewardship. Hours before Thursday’s meeting, Ms Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice,” yet emphasized that the administration likes “what it’s seeing” from Caracas so far – a formulation that left Machado celebrated as a symbol but sidelined as a decision‑maker.
Institutions in motion
Machado’s Washington swing included meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill and an event with the Venezuelan diaspora, where she framed the coming months as a test of whether international institutions will back “a negotiated democracy or a managed succession.” On Monday she met Pope Leo XIV, with the pontiff voicing “deep concern” over the U.S. raid to capture Mr Maduro in Caracas and calling for a peaceful political solution that includes guarantees for former regime figures and victims alike.
As of Thursday, the White House has not provided a timetable for Venezuelan presidential elections and has declined to back Ms Machado as the next leader, insisting instead that its focus is on stabilizing institutions and preventing a security vacuum. That stance leaves the country’s transition in the hands of a fragmented set of actors – an interim president seeking recognition, an opposition leader brandishing a Nobel medal, and a U.S. administration that now wields unprecedented control over Venezuela’s most important asset.
