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Washington.- U.S. President Donald Trump will receive Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado next Thursday at the White House, as confirmed to EFE by a U.S. Administration official.
The meeting takes place after Trump announced last week that he planned to address the role of the Nobel Peace Prize in the future of Venezuela following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and amid the current negotiations of Washington with the interim government in Caracas.
Machado's visit also comes after the Republican ruled out the opposition leader for the time being to lead the South American country and instead chose to recognize the interim presidency of the Chavista Delcy Rodríguez, with whom he agreed on the management of the sale of millions of barrels of crude oil.
"I'm going to have to talk to her. She could be involved in some aspect. I'll have to talk to her. I think it's very kind of her to want to come", Trump said when asked by the press if he would change his stance on Machado if she were to give him her Nobel Prize.
According to reports from The Washington Post, the U.S. president reportedly decided not to include the opposition leader in his plans for Venezuela after she accepted the prestigious award, openly coveted by him.
Machado, who had already dedicated the Nobel to Trump when he received it, stated last Monday in an interview on the American channel Fox News that "he certainly wants to give it to him and share it with him (Trump)", to which the Norwegian Nobel Institute explained that a Nobel Prize cannot be transferred to third parties.
Trump insisted last Friday that he feels "very honored" by the visit of the Venezuelan opposition figure in statements that contrast slightly with what he himself said when he questioned Machado's ability to lead Venezuela because "she has no support or respect" in the country.
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Asked this Monday on Fox News about the decision not to involve Machado in the government of a post-Maduro Venezuela, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt insisted that "President Trump and his National Security team made a realistic assessment of the situation in Venezuela, and that decision turned out to be correct".Leavitt also insisted that the Rodríguez government agreed to release political prisoners, "something that the United States has wanted to see for a long time", and highlighted the work with Caracas, which Trump "hopes will continue"."So far we have had the full cooperation of the Venezuelan authorities. The president has managed to close an energy deal of 500 billion dollars. 31 million barrels of oil are already on their way to the U.S. to be sold and that money will be deposited in an account controlled by the U.S. government," he warned.
Machado today asked Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican to intercede for political prisoners and for the "unimpeded progress" of the transition to democracy in Venezuela.
