Nobel Prize for Venezuelan Dissident Draws Criticism

[speak easy]

Source: New York Times

María Corina Machado is being honored for her push for democracy even as she backs President Trump’s military buildup and aggressive campaign against Venezuela.

Ms. Machado has firmly embraced President Trump’s military buildup and has publicly expressed her support for using force to oust the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.

She has also repeated debunked claims that Mr. Maduro manipulated U.S. elections, fueling accusations that she is amplifying misinformation to gain favor with the Trump administration.

“It will be a different kind of Nobel Prize ceremony,” said Benedicte Bull, a professor at the University of Oslo and a leading expert on Latin America in Norway. “Much more politicized than what we have seen before.”

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/09/world/americas/nobel-prize-venezuela.html

[speak easy]

1. Maybe W should've got a Nobel prize for ousting Saddam Hussein by military force?

The enemy of your enemy is not your friend if he is Donald J. Trump.

[AloeVera]

2. Et tu, Nobel?

Her selection is utterly incomprehensible and feels like an especially painful betrayal. What is going on with the Nobel Committee?

[Escurumbele]

3. Are you well informed of the Venezuelan situation? Do you know anything about Maria Corina Machado? Just wondering.

She is a woman of integrity, honest, a true Venezuelan patriot who has been punched in the face during a state session when Chavez was president, by an opposition thug. If you understand the disgrace of the MAGA movement, all you need is to understand that the only difference between CHAVISTAS and MAGAts is the language they speak.

Venezuela plays a very important geographical strategic location, one that the Russians (Putin) will not give up easily, and the fact that Venezuela has been taken by, not only the communists that make up the regime, but by Russians, Chinese, Hezbollah, Iran, etc. They are taking Venezuela's resources, lots of the Venezuelan money is being diverted to terrorism, people are hungry while the thugs from the regime continue to line their pockets with petroleum money, gold, precious stones, etc., etc.

The military is extremely corrupt also lining their pockets as well. They have the power over the citizens. Torture is a daily thing in Venezuela, many young people have been taken to a place called "The Elicoide" (read about a BBC article), where they are tortured, and may die by the torture or simply are executed by the regime.

There is more but I will spare you of it. Why am I going through this small list? To explain why Maria Corina Machado, who has fought very hard to bring Democracy back to Venezuela, has lined up with trump. I as someone who likes history, knows people in Venezuela and have kept up with the situation there, her actions in supporting trump are of desperation for her cause to rid Venezuela of the cruel regime, and bring back Democracy. Do I agree with how far she has gone to support trump? No, I don't because I know his intentions are not good, and he will throw her under the bus the first chance he gets. Also, as John Bolton wrote in his book, trump admires Maduro, he thinks Maduro is "strong and intelligent" because Putin told him so, and trump wants to be like Maduro.

I call ICE the "USA Colectivos". This may not mean much to you and many people but, "The Colectivos" are exactly what ICE is, a militia for the regime, most of them convicted criminals. trump has followed the blueprint from Venezuela.

But anyway, back to Maria Corina Machado...She does deserve the Nobel Prize, but understand her situation, the only option for her and Venezuela is trump, whether he will honor his promises to remove Maduro and his gang from Venezuela? That is another story. In my opinion, he won't, Putin will not let him like he didn't let him when John Bolton was part of his administration

[iemanja]

5. She's also a huge Trump supporter

and anxiously eggs on his plans to invade her country.

[Igel]

7. Think maybe she'd side with whoever offered a good chance to rid the

country of the canker Maduro?

That said, she's also very much not socialist. Then again, what does Maduro claim to be?

[TomWilm]

6. Then maybe FIFA can invent a peace prize for her too?

Last edited Wed Dec 10, 2025, 07:30 AM - Edit history (1)

There are very few real heavy acknowledgements of people actively working for peace. "Champions of peace" is what this prize was coined for: "To the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses."

Problem is, that the winner is selected by a committee from the Norwegian parliament. 130 years ago they were a more peaceful bunch. Today it seems like Machado only was selected to prevent more sanctions against Norway from an unhappy Tr*mp.

Machado might deserve some kind of democracy price, but no real "Champions of peace" would claim as she has done, that only military pressure will force Maduro to step down - and she has in no way criticized the possible US military invasion of her country.

[AloeVera]

9. She's willing to sell Venezuela by the bolivar, or rather by the gallon.

It's a sad and surreal world where people like Machado and Trump sell themselves as peace-loving " freedom fighters" and protectors of democracy - and people, even intelligent people, buy what they are selling.

Don't kid yourself. She is just like Trump, a hard-right, populist authoritarian and oligarchy-lover masquerading as a fighter for the people. She is not "desparate", far from it. This is her chance to remake Venezuela into her vision of what it should be: a playground for Big Oil, unfettered capitalism and the rapacious oligarchs who likely fund or at least support her. Her image has been carefully crafted and honed for nearly a quarter century by these malignant forces to appeal to both Western liberals and the right-wing populists on the ascendant here and in Europe. The Western media as usual is happy to carry all that dirty water - whether out of ignorance or at the behest of their oligarch owners, take your pick.

It dismays me that the Nobel prize will now be used to lend legitimacy to such nefarious plans and the bloody intervention and regime change both Machado and Trump are bent on inflicting on the unfortunate Venezuelans. But it doesn't surprise me in the least that Machado is chomping at the bits for the US to "drop the bombs" without any qualms about what that means for her people - after all, she pushed for the sanctions that devastated her country's economy and killed untold thousands of people and caused millions to flee. So what's a few more thousand, as long as Maduro is gone and Venezuela is up for sale, er "open for business", right?

Violence, deprivation and starvation repackaged as "peace". Authoritarianism and oligarchic rule repackaged as "democracy". Loss of sovereignty and national aspirations marketed as "freedom and liberation". It's the Trumpian playbook and Machado has played it well. There will be lots of "winners" but the losers will be ordinary Venezuelans.

If you think Maduro is bad, just wait until the CIA starts its black ops with Machado's help and people start "disappearing" and there is more blood in the streets in the tradition of what happens to all small countries that dare to oppose the US Empire and nationalize their resources or attempt to control their own destiny. Especially socialist ones.

Yes, socialist not communist. I lived under Soviet-style communism in my formative years. Venezuela is not communist. Ask me how I know.

[iemanja]

4. She's a disaster

She whined about the Mamdani’s election on X and claimed it would lead to authoritarianism. This while singing Trump’s praises and supporting his killing of her own country’s citizens.

[mathematic]

8. And Lech Walesa praised Ronald Reagan.

Did the Poles deserve to continue to live under the tyranny of the Soviet Union as a result?

I know there are many people that regret that the Soviet Union fell. That Poland became a capitalist country. That Poland is a free and wealthy country, neither of which was true under communism. I am not one of them and I hope none of them are here on DU.

It is wrong to view the Venezuelan democracy movement through the lens of US domestic politics. If Harris was President then Machado would be courting her administration. After all, Biden met with and supported Edmundo González, the winner of the election, and the candidate that stood for Machado when she was disqualified from the ballot and was forced into exile.