Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump described his meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado as a great honour, after she presented her Nobel Peace Prize to him during talks at the White House on January 15. “It was my great honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today,” Trump said in a social media post after the meeting. “She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much.”
Trump said Machado presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done, calling it such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. He added: “Thank you María!” The meeting, held over lunch in the White House’s Private Dining Room, marked the first in-person encounter between Trump and Machado.
Machado later told reporters that she had presented Trump with the Nobel Peace Prize medal, framing the act as a symbolic gesture rooted in shared democratic traditions between Venezuela and the United States. She said she told Trump that 200 years ago, French General Marquis de Lafayette presented Venezuelan independence leader Simon Bolívar with a medal bearing the likeness of George Washington, which Bolívar kept for the rest of his life.
“Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case, the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment to our freedom,” Machado said. The Norwegian Nobel Institute has said that once awarded, the Nobel Peace Prize cannot be transferred, shared, or revoked.