Venezuelan opposition activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday after Trump refused to endorse her to lead the country following the U.S. seizure of Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president following Maduro’s capture on Jan. 3 by U.S. forces. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are being held in federal prison in New York. They face drug trafficking and narco-terrorism charges.
Thursday’s meeting is seen by regional experts as Machado’s opportunity to guarantee the opposition party a seat at the negotiating table as the U.S. and the Maduro regime chart a path forward for the oil-rich country.
“The stakes are really high for Machado,” Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said of the White House meeting. “She’ll have to thread the needle between praising the president for taking a risk and capturing Maduro while also pushing him on larger questions on democracy and human rights.”
Those questions will center on exactly how the Trump administration intends to restore the country’s democratic institutions. Achieving a true democratic transition would require an independent judiciary, guarantees of press freedoms and the release of political prisoners who were detained by the Maduro regime amid protests over the contested 2024 presidential election, Ramsey said.
The transition process will be long and complicated. Rodríguez is one of several senior officials in the Maduro administration who now appear to control the country, despite Trump’s assertion that he is calling the shots.
Trump spoke with Rodríguez over the phone on Wednesday. He said the phone call was “very good,” adding the pair made “tremendous progress” toward a plan to stabilize Venezuela. Trump praised Rodríguez, a pillar of Venezuela’s socialist regime, as a “terrific person.”
“Any critical transition must be inclusive,” said Nathalie Rayes, former U.S. ambassador to the Republic of Croatia and co-chair of the Venezuelan-American Caucus.
Guaranteeing the opposition party is included in transition negotiations is critical for Machado, Rayes said. Currently, the opposition party has no presence in Maduro’s Venezuela.
“They fear, there’s still fear,” Rayes, a Biden appointee, said. “Opposition leaders want to come back to a country and be part of this transition government.” The Nobel Peace Prize that Machado holds will be a key to currying favor with Trump, who has long coveted the prestigious award. Machado dedicated her 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Trump. She also praised the administration’s strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean. After Maduro’s capture, she thanked Trump and floated the idea of sharing her Nobel prize with him. Although the Norwegian Nobel Committee quickly threw cold water on the idea, it was a show of favor for the president whom Machado will need on her side as she seeks to fill the nascent power vacuum in Venezuela. “I think the best-case scenario for Machado would be leaving the White House meeting with some display of support from the president and a clear plan for a genuine democratic transition,” Ramsey said.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. Recommended
