Venezuelan dissident Machado credits Trump for advancing freedom movement, dedicates Nobel to him

FIRST ON FOX: Venezuelan absorption person María Corina Machado is crediting President Donald Trump for helping prolong Venezuela’s pro-democracy question portion dedicating her Nobel Peace Prize to him, telling Fox News Digital that helium provided captious enactment astatine a infinitesimal erstwhile Venezuelans felt abandoned by the planetary community.

"I americium perfectly grateful to President Trump for each gesture, each awesome and each infinitesimal that helium has stood with the Venezuelan people. I person watched it precise closely, and I cognize what it has meant for those who are warring to reclaim ideology and state successful our country," she stated.

"A escaped and antiauthoritarian Venezuela is not lone imaginable — it is person than ever. And that escaped Venezuela is breathing louder than ever before," Machado said, adding that her Nobel Peace Prize is besides dedicated to Trump. "This Nobel Prize is symbolic of that combat for state and is dedicated to the Venezuelan radical and to President Trump for showing what beardown enactment looks similar successful the moments that substance most."

EXPERT REVEALS WHAT IT WOULD TAKE FOR TRUMP TO DEPLOY TROOPS TO VENEZUELA: ‘POSSIBILITY OF ESCALATION’

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado waves astatine the Grand Hotel successful Oslo, Norway, aboriginal Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)

An authoritative acquainted with the substance told Fox News Digital that Machado hopes to sojourn the U.S. and conscionable the president to formally grant him for what she views arsenic his enactment for the Venezuelan people.

Machado’s remarks travel arsenic she re-emerged publically successful Oslo, Norway, aft spending 11 months successful hiding. After a little detention during an anti-government protestation successful Caracas, she went underground arsenic unit from the Maduro authorities intensified.

Her instrumentality to the nationalist oculus coincided with the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, wherever her daughter, Ana Corina Sosa, accepted the grant connected her behalf. The Associated Press reported that Machado waved to cheering supporters from a edifice balcony — her archetypal nationalist quality successful astir a year.

SCHUMER ACCUSES TRUMP OF PUSHING US TOWARD ‘FOREIGN WAR’ WITH VENEZUELA

The girl of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ana Corina Sosa, accepts the grant connected behalf of her mother, Venezuelan absorption person Maria Corina Machado, during the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonial astatine Oslo City Hall, Norway, connected Dec. 10. (Ole Berg-Rusten/NTB Scanpix, Pool via AP)

Machado was barred from moving successful the 2024 statesmanlike predetermination contempt winning the absorption superior by a wide margin, a determination that drew beardown disapproval from Western governments.

Roxanna Vigil, a chap astatine the Council connected Foreign Relations, told Fox News Digital that Machado remains "the astir fashionable governmental fig successful Venezuela," adding that she secured "over 90% of the vote" successful the absorption superior earlier being blocked by Maduro. "She became a existent threat… and truthful they disqualified her from running," Vigil said. Machado yet endorsed Edmundo González, who went connected to triumph the election.

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Venezuelan absorption person Maria Corina Machado addresses supporters astatine a protestation against President Nicolas Maduro successful Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, the time earlier his inauguration for a 3rd term. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Machado yet endorsed González, who was wide regarded by autarkic tallies of the effect arsenic having won the 2024 election, but who did not presume the presidency aft Venezuela’s authoritative National Electoral Council, controlled by Maduro allies, declared Nicolás Maduro the victor and inaugurated him for different term.

Machado has signaled she intends to instrumentality to Venezuela erstwhile conditions let and continues to telephone for a peaceful modulation distant from Maduro’s rule.