#maria-corina-machado

#maria-corina-machado

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado opened her eyes and sighed as she relived her secret journey to escape Venezuela. Those were very intense hours, during which I felt a real risk to my life, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate told eight international media outlets, including EL PAIS, at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, less than 48 hours after landing in the Norwegian capital.

Maria Corina Machado has made U.S. foreign policy the central platform of her strategy to bring about a transition in Venezuela. Since July 28, 2024, when the opposition presented the official records declaring Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, Machado's chosen representative, the winner of the presidential election, the most troublesome opposition figure for Chavismo has received a new boost: renewed attention from Washington.

Meanwhile, over 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States have lost the protection of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and are now at risk of being deported. Maduro is facing the most severe crisis of his mandate, yet each passing day is another day in power, even as the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford in Caribbean waters and the launch of Operation Southern Spear seem to signal an imminent checkmate.

While security concerns mean it remains to be seen if the newly crowned Nobel laureate will emerge from hiding to pick up her accolade in person at the Oslo ceremony in December, a certain obsequious Fifa president appears hell-bent on stealing her thunder anyway. Yup, Gianni Infantino has decided to award a peace prize of his own creation in front of a global TV audience of hundreds of millions of international football fans the previous week in Washington.

This is part of a much bigger Let's go meta here. This is a new doctrine. And I think what you are seeing President Trump do is pivot from the old war from Europe, even from the Middle East, and moving into our own hemisphere. He's saying our neighborhood is the host important thing that we can take care of.