Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, one of Venezuela’s most prominent pro-democracy leaders, is strongly backing President Donald Trump’s hard-line approach toward Nicolás Maduro’s authoritarian regime. In a new interview that aired Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation, Machado said Trump’s strategy has given hope to millions of Venezuelans suffering under socialist rule.

Asked whether she supports increased U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan officials and further U.S. seizures of illicit oil shipments, Machado was unequivocal.

“Look, I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy, and we, the Venezuelan people, are very grateful to him and to his administration, because I believe he is a champion of freedom in this hemisphere,” Machado told host Margaret Brennan.

Speaking from Oslo, where she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize after spending nearly a year in hiding, Machado noted that she had dedicated part of the award to Trump.

“I think that he finally has put Venezuela in where it should be, in terms of a priority for the United States’ national security.”

Machado argued that Maduro’s regime is far more dangerous than a conventional dictatorship.

“This is a very complex criminal structure that has turned Venezuela into a safe haven of international crime and terrorist activities, starting with Russia, Iran, Cuba, Hezbollah, Hamas, the Colombian guerrilla [groups], [and] the drug cartels operating freely and directed in partnership with Maduro and his regime.”

Machado has long been one of Maduro’s most effective opposition figures. After she overwhelmingly won the opposition primary in 2023, the regime barred her from running, then orchestrated an election that independent experts later declared “mathematically and statistically impossible.” Despite that, Maduro claimed victory and refused to relinquish power. Machado endorsed a stand-in candidate but remained the movement’s central figure—until she was forced into hiding for her safety.

Now, speaking publicly for the first time in months, Machado is calling for increased international pressure.

“We want every legal action through law enforcement … not only from the United States, also from other Caribbean, Latin American and European countries that further block the illegal activities of the regime.”

Her argument is straightforward:

“We need to increase the cost of staying in power by force. Once you arrive to that point in which the cost of staying in power is higher than the cost of leaving power, the regime will fall apart. And it’s the moment where we advance into a negotiated transition.”

Additional Context: Trump and the Nobel Peace Prize

Machado’s praise comes as Trump has repeatedly been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, particularly for:

• The Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Arab nations—an achievement some foreign-policy experts called one of the most important diplomatic breakthroughs in decades.
• His diplomatic efforts in reducing tensions with North Korea, which earned him multiple nominations from European lawmakers.
• His support for democracy movements in Latin America, including Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua.