Pope meets Venezuelan opposition leader Machado in surprise audience

Pope Leo XIV met with Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado of Venezuela (Vatican Media via AP, HO)

Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelanopposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican.

The meeting, which hadn’t been previously included in the list of Leo’s planned appointments, was later listed by the Vatican in its daily bulletin, without adding details.

The details of the meeting were not revealed (Vatican Media via AP, HO)

Ms Machado is touring Europe and the United States after she re-emerged in December after 11 months in hiding to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.

Pope Leo, the first American pontiff, has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after US forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his compound in Caracas and flew him to New York to face federal charges of drug trafficking.

Leo had said he was following the developments in Venezuela with “deep concern” and urged the protection of human and civil rights in the Latin American country.

Venezuela’s opposition, backed by consecutive Republican and Democratic administrations in the US, had vowed for years to immediately replace Maduro with one of their own and restore democracy to the oil-rich country.

But US President Donald Trump delivered them a heavy blow by allowing Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, to assume control.

Meanwhile, most opposition leaders, including Ms Machado, are in exile or prison.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump and the people of Venezuela (Ariana Cubillos/AP)

After winning the 2025 Nobel Prize for Peace, Ms Machado said she’d like to give it to or share it with Mr Trump.

Ms Machado dedicated the prize to Mr Trump, along with the people of Venezuela, shortly after it was announced.

Mr Trump has coveted and openly campaigned for winning the Nobel Prize himself since his return to office in January 2025.

The organisation that oversees the Nobel Peace Prize — the Norwegian Nobel Institute — said, however, that once it’s announced, the prize can’t be revoked, transferred or shared with others.

“The decision is final and stands for all time,” it said in a short statement.