An honorary medal, ten million Swedish kronor, media headlines, interviews, and a flood of congratulations, that’s not the main thing. The Nobel Peace Prize is not just about the money or the prestige; it is a passport to power. It gives you platforms at global institutions and elite universities, your words become social media quotes, and publishers line up to print whatever you write, no matter how trivial. A one-hour speech could earn you thousands of dollars. You are now a Nobel Laureate, and your opinions suddenly matter.
All these might mean little to someone like Donald Trump, a billionaire who runs the United States. Yet, he desperately wanted the Nobel Peace Prize. He claimed to have “brokered peace” in eight conflicts that “no one else could solve.” No worries, though: if Trump couldn’t win it, a female version of him, María Corina Machado, a Venezuelan politician, has just been announced as this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner by the Oslo-based committee.
According to Trump, Machado called to tell him that “he really deserves it” and that “she is accepting it in his honour.” On her X account, she confirmed she dedicates the award to Trump and the Venezuelan people. So, who exactly is María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan admirer of Donald Trump?
Machado and Her Political Career
Machado, 58, trained as an industrial engineer but has been active in Venezuelan politics since the early 2000s. She co-founded the pro-democracy NGO Súmate and, in 2010, entered partisan politics, winning a seat in the National Assembly with the highest number of votes nationwide. She served from 2011 to 2014 until she was expelled from the Assembly.
Known for her pro-American stance, Machado has tried to run for president since 2012. After winning the opposition primary to become the unity candidate for the 2024 presidential election, she was barred by the court, which accused her of financial irregularities committed during her tenure as a legislator.
A self-proclaimed liberal and anti-communist, Machado is a fellow of the Yale World Fellows Program, which aims to build a global network of emerging leaders. She supports the privatisation of state-run enterprises, including the national oil company PDVSA, and has backed international sanctions which have deepened economic suffering in her own country. She has also openly called for the military removal of President Nicolás Maduro.
Strongly supported by MAGAzelans, Venezuelan-Americans who support Trump, Machado has long admired the former U.S. president. When the U.S. Navy deployed to the Caribbean in 2025 under the pretext of combating drug cartels — a move Caracas described as a bid for regime change — Machado threw her weight behind Washington’s operation.
Fascism and Zionism
Just as she admires Trump, Machado has cultivated ties with those close to him. She has shown strong pro-Israel and anti-Muslim leanings. In January 2019, she thanked and reposted Benjamin Netanyahu’s message on X supporting Trump-backed Juan Guaidó. Machado has supported Israel’s actions in Gaza and pledged to re-establish diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv, severed by Venezuela in 2009.
In a letter dated 8 December 2018, addressed to Argentina’s then-President Mauricio Macri and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she urged their intervention in Venezuela, claiming her country was allied with Iran and “extremist groups.”
In 2020, Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, formalised a pact with Israel’s Likud Party to “forge an alliance between our two parties to cooperate on issues of strategy, geopolitics, and security.”
Like many European far-right parties that find common ground with Zionism and Christian Zionists, Machado also gravitates toward such circles. On 8 February 2025, she sent a video message to the Patriots for Europe summit in Madrid, a gathering of far-right leaders filled with praise for Trump and anti-Muslim chants. Notably, Israel’s Likud Party is an observer member of this same far-right alliance.
Her political friendships and public statements make it clear: Machado’s idea of “freedom” is deeply entangled with the agendas of Zionist and Western powers.
Nobel Peace Prize?
The fact that such a figure now bears the Nobel Peace Prize questions the meaning of peace itself. Whose peace does the Nobel Committee reward?
History has seen its fair share of controversial laureates, leaders who justified wars, endorsed unfair sanctions, or backed coups, all under the banner of “democracy” and “freedom.” Machado fits neatly into that lineage. She calls for military action against her own government and openly supports a genocidal regime. But then, these are all “pro-democracy advocacy.”
Her award also raises a suspicion: could it be an early signal of moral justification for an attempt to unseat Venezuela’s government by force — and to steal its oil?
Indeed, not all that glitters is gold. And not everyone who wins a Nobel Peace Prize stands for peace.
*The views expressed in this content are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of İdrakpost.
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