rome — Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday.
The meeting, which was not previously included in Leo’s list of scheduled appointments, was later included by the Vatican in its daily bulletin, without adding details.
Machado is touring Europe and the United States after reappearing in December after 11 months in hiding to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.
Pope Leo, the first American pope, called on Venezuela to remain an independent country after US forces arrested former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his compound in Caracas and flew him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
Liu had said he was following developments in Venezuela with “deep concern” and urged the protection of human and civil rights in the Latin American country.
The Venezuelan opposition, backed by successive Republican and Democratic administrations in the United States, has 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 dealt them a strong blow when he allowed Maduro’s Vice President, Delcy Rodriguez, to take power.
Read also | The Nobel Institute says Venezuelan leader Machado cannot award her Peace Prize to Trump
Meanwhile, most opposition leaders, including Machado, live in exile or prison.
After winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, Machado said she would like to give it to Trump or share it with him.
Machado dedicated the award to Trump, along with the people of Venezuela, shortly after it was announced. Trump has aspired and publicly campaigned to win the Nobel Prize himself since returning to office in January 2025.
But the organization that oversees the Nobel Peace Prize – the Norwegian Nobel Institute – said that once the award is announced, the award cannot be cancelled, transferred or shared with others.
“The decision is final and applies forever,” she said in a brief statement last week.
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