{"id":246052,"date":"2026-01-15T12:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/246052\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T12:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T12:37:07","slug":"trump-to-discuss-venezuelas-future-with-machado-after-maduros-capture-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/246052\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to discuss Venezuela\u2019s future with Machado after Maduro\u2019s capture | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a> will host Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a>, the Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel peace prize winner, at the White House on Thursday for a high-stakes talks on the oil-rich nation\u2019s future following the US capture of Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Many in Venezuela and abroad had expected Machado to take charge after an elite US military team seized Maduro in a pre-dawn raid on 3 January and transported him to a New York City jail<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the White House has largely sidelined Machado, instead recognizing Maduro\u2019s former vice-president, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, as Venezuela\u2019s interim leader even as Trump insists the US will \u201crun\u201d the country.<\/p>\n

A close Rodr\u00edguez ally, Venezuela\u2019s ambassador to the UK F\u00e9lix Plasencia, was also set to land in Washington on Thursday to meet Trump officials as part of the dramatic rapprochement brought about by Maduro\u2019s downfall. That official visit \u2013 the first in years \u2013 was reportedly<\/a> partly designed to pave the way for the reopening of the Venezuelan embassy.<\/p>\n

Machado, a 58-year-old former legislator, won a primary to run against Maduro in 2024 but was blocked by the government<\/a> from running. Her replacement, the retired diplomat Edmundo Gonz\u00e1lez Urrutia, was recognized by Washington as the legitimate winner of the presidential election after the opposition presented strong evidence that Maduro had lost the race by a wide margin.<\/p>\n

Trump has sent mixed signals about Machado\u2019s role in Venezuela\u2019s transition, publicly questioning her domestic standing. On the day of Maduro\u2019s capture, he remarked that Machado was a \u201cnice woman\u201d, but claimed she lacked the \u201crespect\u201d needed to govern Venezuela.<\/p>\n

But whether Machado can persuade Trump otherwise may depend less on her vision for Venezuela than the gold medal she was awarded for her work promoting democracy and human rights.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Fox News last week, Machado said that she wanted to \u201cshare\u201d the award with Trump \u2013 an idea rebuffed by the organizers of the Nobel prize<\/a>, who clarified that the prize was non-transferable. Still, Trump told reporters it would be a \u201cgreat honor\u201d to accept the prize.<\/p>\n

Trump has frequently expressed frustration at being overlooked for the Nobel prize, and it has been reported that Machado\u2019s acceptance of the prize \u2013 despite dedicating it in part to Trump \u2013 hurt her standing with the administration. \u201cIf she had turned it down and said: \u2018I can\u2019t accept it because it\u2019s Donald Trump\u2019s,\u2019 she\u2019d be the president of Venezuela today,\u201d a source close to the White House told<\/a> the Washington Post.<\/p>\n

Trump has meanwhile forged a working relationship with Rodr\u00edguez, the acting president. Last week, Trump announced an agreement with Venezuela\u2019s interim leaders that he said would provide up to 50m barrels of crude oil<\/a> to the US. He also signed an executive order to \u201csafeguard\u201d Venezuelan oil revenues in US-controlled accounts.<\/p>\n

After initially condemning the capture of Maduro \u2013 an operation Venezuelan officials say killed at least 100 military personnel and civilians \u2013 Rodr\u00edguez has pivoted to working closely with the Trump administration to assert control over the country\u2019s government and its oil reserves. In the day\u2019s since Maduro\u2019s seizure and rendition, officials in Venezuela have begun releasing political prisoners, including multiple US citizens, in what Rodr\u00edguez described<\/a> as an \u201copening up to a new political moment\u201d. NGOs monitoring political detentions say the process has been slow and estimate that that as many as 1,000 remain detained.<\/p>\n

Following their first phone call on Wednesday, which Trump touted on Truth Social as a \u201ctremendous\u201d step toward a \u201cspectacular\u201d partnership and Rodr\u00edguez described on Twitter\/X as a \u201ccourteous\u201d discussion on a bilateral agenda, Trump told reporters the interim leader was a \u201cterrific person\u201d with whom the US has \u201cworked very well\u201d.<\/p>\n

Since Trump\u2019s election, Machado has repeatedly praised him, calling him a \u201cchampion of freedom\u201d. In the interview with Fox News\u2019s Sean Hannity, Machado insisted her movement was prepared to win a free election in Venezuela and thanked Trump<\/a> for toppling Maduro.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to say today, on behalf of the Venezuelan people, how grateful we are for his courageous vision, the actions \u2013 historical actions \u2013 he has taken against this narco-terrorist regime, to start dismantling this structure and bringing Maduro to justice,\u201d she told the network, speaking from an undisclosed location.<\/p>\n

In a separate interview with CBS last week, Machado noted<\/a> that Rodr\u00edguez remains sanctioned by the US and argued the acting president is in a \u201cvery critical position because nobody trusts her\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked if she should be Venezuela\u2019s next leader, Machado said: \u201cAbsolutely, yes<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are ready and willing to serve our people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump will host Mar\u00eda Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader and 2025 Nobel peace prize winner, at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-246052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}