Donald Trump has cast himself as the president of peace, having credited himself for brokering ceasefires between Thailand and Cambodia earlier this week, as well as Israel and Hamas earlier this month. Now, the Venezuelan opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado, says he could be to thank for future peace in Venezuela.
Speaking at Fortune’s Global Forum while in hiding, and just weeks after winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, Machado said that Venezuela’s President, Nicolás Maduro and “the regime” have turned her country into a “narco-terrorist structure.”
“The only way to really dismantle them is we need to cut the inflows that come from criminal activities such as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, even human smuggling,” she added.
“Finally, we’re seeing in this administration, with the leadership of President Trump, the division and the targeting to cut those inflows from coming into the regime. So that’s why we’re seeing this unique opportunity very close, very close to the inner future in terms of a peaceful transition to democracy once the regime finally realizes that it’s time, it’s over.”
Her comments come as a U.S. warship, a guided missile destroyer, docked in Trinidad and Tobago’s capital Sunday as the Trump administration boosts military pressure on neighboring Venezuela and its President. Maduro criticized the move as an attempt by the U.S government to fabricate “a new eternal war” against his country.
In response, Machado said: “It was Nicholas Maduro who started this war, and he has been offered all along this way since we won by landslide, a presidential election last year, he has been offered a negotiated transition; it has been Maduro, who has refused and has stayed in power through the most brutal repression campaign … he knows the consequences, and he has been warned to stop this.”
“This is the moment to stop this. This is about saving lives,” she continued. “Maduro started this war, President Trump is ending the war.”
Earlier this month, Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
“As the leader of the democracy movement in Venezuela, Maria Corina Machado is one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times,” the prize awarding institution wrote.
She was named one of BBC’s 100 Women in 2018, and listed among Time magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2025.
Machado has been forced into hiding since last year
Ahead of the July 28, 2024, election, Machado was the opposition’s presidential candidate, but the regime blocked her candidacy. She then backed the representative of a different party, Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, in the election.
Hundreds of thousands of volunteers trained as election observers to ensure a transparent and fair election; Citizens across the country stood watch over the polling stations to make sure the final tallies were documented before the regime could destroy ballots and lie about the outcome.
The opposition presented vote tallies, claiming that González won the election in a landslide, while the government-run National Electoral Council claimed victory for Maduro without presenting evidence. Shortly after the election, Machado announced that she had gone into hiding, citing fears for her life and freedom under the Maduro government.
“Mr. Maduro didn’t win the Venezuelan presidential election on Sunday. He lost in a landslide to Edmundo González, 67% to 30%. I know this to be true because I can prove it. I have receipts obtained directly from more than 80% of the nation’s polling stations,” she wrote in The Wall Street Journal, while still in hiding. “I call on those who reject authoritarianism and support democracy to join the Venezuelan people in our noble cause. We won’t rest until we are free.”
