Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado visited the White House on Thursday for a closed-door lunch with US President Donald Trump.
Machado told reporters after the meeting she had “presented” Trump with her Nobel Peace Prize medal “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
In brief remarks, she added the meeting had gone well and that her supporters could “count on” the US president.
The White House did not specify whether or not Trump accepted the medal. Trump has openly coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, and reacted to Machado’s being named Nobel laureate in December 2025 with derision.
Machado had been careful in recent weeks to avoid offending Trump and even previously offered to share her peace prize with him, which the Nobel Institute said is not allowed.
The ouster of President Nicolas Maduro after a US raid in Caracas on January 3 had initially sparked hopes among Venezuela’s embattled pro-democracy opposition, led by Machado, who had called for an “end to tyranny” in Venezuela.
However, Trump quickly sidelined Machado after the US kidnapped Maduro, saying she didn’t “have the support within or the respect within the country” to be in charge.
Venezuela’s opposition says Maduro stole the 2024 election from Machado’s party, claims which have been supported by Washington.
On Thursday, the White House said Trump has not changed his opinion on Machado.
Venezuela’s Machado awarded Nobel Peace Prize in absentia
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The opposition leader won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for advocating democracy in Venezuela despite threats from Maduro.
Machado’s daughter Ana Corina Sosa received the prize for her mother during a ceremony in Oslo in December 2025.
The meeting with Trump was a rare public appearance for Machado, whose whereabouts have been largely unknown since she left Venezuela last year after being briefly detained in Caracas.
Rodriguez calls for ‘diplomacy’
Despite calling Machado a “freedom fighter” and a “very nice woman,” it is clear Trump and his advisers prefer Maduro’s deputy Delcy Rodriguez, along with others in the deposed leader’s inner circle, to be in charge of day-to-day government operations in Venezuela.
On Wednesday, Trump spoke with Rodriguez for the first time on the phone, calling her a “terrific person” and praising the “terrific progress” made since Maduro’s ouster.
“Many topics were discussed,” Trump wrote on social media, “including Oil, Minerals, Trade and, of course, National Security.”
Rodriguez said the call was “productive and courteous,” and characterized by “mutual respect.”
In a national address on Thursday, Rodriguez criticized the Trump administration’s moves while also calling for closer cooperation with Washington, in a sharp reversal in tone from her predecessors.
“Let us not be afraid of diplomacy” with the US, said Rodriguez. In recent days, the Venezuelan government has begun releasing hundreds of political prisoners detained during Maduro’s rule.
Interim President Delcy Rodriguez gave a presidential address in Caracas on ThursdayImage: Federico Parra/AFP
US seizes another oil tanker
Machado’s visit and Rodriguez’s speech come as another vessel was seized by US forces in the Caribbean on Thursday, according to the US military’s Southern Command.
The pre-dawn raid on the tanker Veronica took place “without incident,” the US military said in a statement, adding the vessel was “operating in defiance” the US president’s “established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
Six Venezuelan-linked oil tankers have been seized by US forces since mid-December, with four of the operations taking place after Maduro was snatched from Caracas and brought to New York.
Maduro’s deputy Rodriguez quickly took over as interim president, and the Trump administration has signaled Rodriguez is ready to play ball with US plans to take control of production, refining and global distribution of Venezuelan oil.
Venezuela looks at attracting US oil investment
Since Rodriguez took over, Trump has said the US plans to control Venezuela’s oil resources indefinitely, and introduced a $100 billion plan to develop the country’s oil industry. Part of the plan is also controlling illicit oil leaving Venezuela through interdiction at sea.
The oil tankers intercepted so far have been either under US sanctions or part of a “shadow fleet” of ships that disguise their origins to move oil from major sanctioned producers, such as Venezuela.
“The only oil leaving Venezuela will be that is coordinated properly and lawfully,” the US Southern Command said in a statement on Thursday.
On Thursday, Rodriguez said she was submitting reforms to Venezuela’s hydrocarbon law to attract more investment.
Rodriguez said the reforms would “allow these investment flows to be incorporated into new fields, fields where no investment has ever been made and into fields where there is no infrastructure.”
She added that money earned from oil sales would go to public health projects and improving infrastructure.
Last week, Trump presented his plan in a meeting with oil company executives, some of whom were skeptical of developing Venezuelan oil.
The CEO of ExxonMobil, Darren Woods, went as far as to say that Venezuela is currently “uninvestable” without major changes to legal and commercial frameworks.
Is Venezuelan oil United States’ main interest?
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Edited by: Louis Oelofse
