Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado on Friday said her historic Nobel Peace Prize isn’t just a victory for her embattled nation — it’s also a tribute to President Donald Trump, whose policies have “restored democracy and freedom in the Americas.”
“I dedicated this award to the Venezuelan people and President Trump because I believe that’s absolutely fair,” Machado told The Post in an exclusive interview. “We, the Venezuelan people, are absolutely grateful to President Trump for the way he has supported democracy and freedom in the Americas.”
Machado led a grassroots opposition movement that defeated Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by a landslide in the country’s 2024 elections, but the dictator illegitimately claimed he won the election and is now ruling the country by force.
Nobel Peace Prize winner and Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado on Friday dedicated her award to President Trump and his “decisive support” of democracy in the South American nation. Getty Images
“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,” Machado said. Getty ImagesSpeaking from an undisclosed location in Venezuela, Machado — who has been in hiding since the election was stolen — said Trump’s “courage and clarity” have been instrumental in isolating and weakening what she described as Maduro’s “narco-terrorist criminal enterprise” running her country.
Trump has been ramping up the pressure on Maduro’s regime since coming into office, sending warships to target the dictator’s drug mules in South America, cutting off Biden-era sanctions waivers that kept money from oil sales flowing into the dictator’s pockets and raising the award for arrest to $50 million — the largest bounty sum in US history.
“From the very beginning, President Trump understood this wasn’t a conventional dictatorship,” she said. “He treated it as what it is — a criminal network tied to drug cartels, terrorist groups, and foreign regimes that threaten both the Venezuelan people and the security of the United States.”
Machado painted a grim picture of life under Maduro: schools open only two days a week, hospitals without medicine, pensions worth less than a dollar a month and nearly 90% of the population living in poverty.
“This regime has destroyed everything,” she said. “They torture, they kill, they imprison family members just because someone posts about inflation online.”
President Trump leaves the White House en route to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday for a semi-annual physical and visit with wounded soldiers. LENIN NOLLY/SIPA/ShutterstockDespite that repression, Machado said Venezuelans are more united than ever — and ready to come home from mass migrations abroad if Maduro is removed from power.
“We are living through a spiritual fight — between good and evil,” she said. “Ninety percent of our people, including the military, want the same thing: freedom, dignity, and our children back home.”
Machado said she hoped the attention garnered from securing the prize helps shine a needed light on Venezuela’s plight — and help build support for more international pressure on the regime, of which the Trump administration has been at the forefront.
“I was looking forward to thanking him directly,” Machado said, confirming she had spoken with Trump earlier in the day. “He’s determined to dismantle the narco-terrorist structure that’s done so much harm to both our peoples.”
Machado credited Trump with taking on the criminal networks funding Maduro’s regime — from drug trafficking and gold smuggling to the black market in oil.
“For years we begged the international community to see this as a law enforcement issue,” she said. “President Trump was the first to act. He called them what they are — narco-terrorist organizations — and used the full weight of the law to cut their money flow.”
She said those actions, along with US naval deployments and energy sanctions, have left Maduro “weaker than ever.”
“Even within the regime, there are fractures and betrayals,” she said. “They know time is over.”
Machado believes the end of Maduro will trigger a domino effect across Latin America, opening the opportunity for true democracy to thrive.
“I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!” the Venezuelan opposition leader said. Anadolu via Getty Images“Once Maduro goes, the Cuban regime will follow, and the Nicaraguan regime will follow as well,” she predicted. “For the first time in history, we will have the Americas free of communism, dictatorship and narco-terrorism. And that will be President Trump’s legacy.”
She said she hopes her Nobel Prize is a sign that a real and lasting change is headed for her country.
“This prize belongs to the people of Venezuela, but it also recognizes the vision of a leader who understood that our freedom is tied to the freedom of the entire hemisphere,” she said.
“President Trump gave us hope. And now, finally, we’re turning that hope into history.”
Trump has a strong shot at receiving the award next year, after having received numerous nominations for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for his work this year ending conflicts around the globe.
The nomination deadline for the 2025 prize was Jan. 31 — just days after Trump took office.
