Venezuelan Opposition leader María Corina Machado on Thursday presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to United States President Donald Trump at the White House.
Trump will keep the medal, CNN quoted an unidentified White House official as saying.
In a social media post, Trump thanked Machado.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much,” he said. “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect.”
Trump has for long coveted the prize, claiming to have stopped several wars, including the India-Pakistan conflict in May. While Islamabad has said it will nominate Trump “in recognition of his decisive diplomatic intervention, New Delhi has rejected the claims and maintained that the ceasefire was not the result of mediation.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which awards the prize, said on January 9 that it “cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others”.
It asserted: “A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot.”
On January 3, the US military abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Washington has accused Maduro of narco terrorism and drug trafficking, among other crimes – allegations that the Venezuelan government rejects.
Caracas has described the US government’s actions as “military aggression” and has demanded that Maduro and Flores be immediately released.
Machado’s gesture on Thursday came after Trump refused to back her to lead Venezuela, saying that “she doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country”.
Trump has instead supported Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez as long as she toes Washington’s line especially on granting the US access to Venezuelan oil reserves.
Machado was awarded the prize in October for promoting democratic rights in Venezuela and her struggle in achieving a peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy in the country.
Machado was the Opposition’s joint presidential candidate in the 2024 election before her candidacy was blocked by the Nicolás Maduro government.
She had been forced into hiding last year, but travelled to Oslo, Norway, to collect her prize in December.
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