Venezuela’s Nobel Peace Prize winner calls on Trump to stop Maduro’s ‘war’ on her country

By Billy Stockwell, CNN

(CNN) — Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize last week, has called for greater US support to stop what she described as a “war” on her country by President Nicolás Maduro.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Wednesday, Machado echoed the Trump administration in calling Maduro the leader of a “criminal narco-terrorism structure” while asking US President Donald Trump for greater “help” in unseating him from power.

She also said the US leader “absolutely” deserves a Nobel Peace Prize of his own due to the “incredible events that are taking place currently in the world,” referring to Trump’s efforts to broker peace in the Middle East.

The comments by Machado – whose winning of the prize upset some MAGA supporters who had hoped Trump would win it – come at a time of rising tensions between the US and Venezuela. They follow several US military strikes on boats off the coast of Venezuela deemed by the Trump administration to be “narco-trafficking” vessels, the latest of which took place on Tuesday, killing six people on board.

Neither Trump nor his administration have offered evidence that these were drug-trafficking vessels, but they have produced a classified legal opinion that justifies lethal strikes against an expansive list of cartels and suspected drug traffickers, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Trump said Wednesday he had authorized the CIA to operate inside the country to clamp down on what he said were illegal flows of drugs while indicating that the US’ military campaign could continue “by land.”

While the Trump administration insists it is targeting drug traffickers, Caracas has accused the US of trying to topple Maduro – a man accused by the US of trafficking drugs (a charge he vehemently denies) and on whose head a $50 million bounty rests.

Machado, who went into hiding following a disputed election last year, has welcomed the US actions as cutting off support to Maduro’s regime. She has also accused Maduro of turning Venezuela into “a real threat to the national security of the United States.”

“In the case of Maduro and his criminal narco-terrorism structure, (it) is (supported) through drug trafficking, gold trafficking, arms trafficking, even human trafficking, and we need to cut those flows from coming in,” she told Amanpour.

She said that regime change will only be brought by “applying (and) enforcing the law, cutting those flows that come from these criminal activities” and that this is what would end Maduro’s “war” on his own country.

“We need the help of the president of the United States to stop this war, because it is about human lives,” Machado said in response to a question about the recent US strikes.

Asked later if she was directly calling for US military intervention in her country, the opposition leader did not directly answer but said she wanted to see the influence of Russia, China, Cuba and Iran curtailed and claimed that Venezuela is currently a “safe haven” for terrorist organizations.

Machado also pushed back on suggestions that Venezuela’s role in drug trafficking had been exaggerated to support the argument of those calling for regime change.

In the interview, Amanpour cited Juan Gonzalez, former US President Joe Biden’s National Security Director for the Western Hemisphere, who has previously told CNN that over 95% of the cocaine that flows into the US comes from Colombia, and that Venezuela itself has never needed to develop a “native drug producing industry” given it has large oil and gold reserves.

But Machado challenged his reasoning, citing what she claimed was an FBI report from 2020 showing that 24% of the global trade in cocaine goes through Venezuela.

Trump ‘absolutely’ deserves Nobel Peace Prize

Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last week for keeping “the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness,” according to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The committee praised the opposition leader as “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times,” notably for her work to achieve a peaceful transition from “dictatorship to democracy.”

Machado said she dedicates her award to Trump because it’s “absolutely fair, and that’s what the Venezuelan people feel,” adding that the US leader is addressing her country’s “tragic situation.”

“I absolutely think he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize because of (the) incredible events that are taking place currently in the world,” she said.

The US leader has repeatedly stressed that he believed he deserved to win the prize for ending “unsolvable” wars during his second term, including the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Trump said he spoke with Machado after learning of the news and said she was “very nice” in their call. Machado also publicly thanked Trump at the time on social media “for his decisive support of our cause.”

Machado still in hiding

Born in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, in 1967, Machado trained as an industrial engineer before entering politics. In 2002, she founded Súmate, a volunteer group that promotes political rights and monitors elections.

Last year, she attempted to run against Maduro in the country’s presidential election, but her candidacy was voided by the regime.

She then switched her support to the party of fellow opposition figure Edmundo González Urrutia, and worked to mobilize citizens and train election observers to try to ensure the vote was free and fair. After declaring victory, the Maduro government moved to crack down on dissent.

Human Rights Watch, a monitoring group, said this year that the government has “killed, tortured, detained, and forcefully disappeared people seeking democratic change.”

As a result, Machado has lived in hiding in Venezuela since last year, resurfacing briefly during protests in January.

Asked by Amanpour if she believed Maduro would dare to hurt her – particularly after being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – Machado replied bluntly: “Oh, yes, I do.”

“They would dare to do anything to stay in power, but at the end, as we speak, he’s more isolated than ever,” she said, from an undisclosed location in the country.

CNN’s Christian Edwards, Char Reck, Kit Maher, Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Kevin Liptak and Kit Maher contributed to this report.

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