We are grateful for what Trump does for peace, says Nobel winner Machado in front of the BBC

Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado told the BBC that she is grateful for what US President Donald Trump is doing “worldwide for peace.”

Mahado, Venezuela’s opposition leader, was awarded the award in 2025 after a campaign against President Nicolas Maduro Moros, whose 12-year government is being regarded by many as illegitimate for a long time.

She told the BBC Mundo that during a greeting phone call with Trump, she told him “how grateful the Venezuelan people are for what she is doing, not only in America, but all over the world for peace, for freedom, for democracy.”

Trump has not made a secret that he wants to win the award by regularly talking about Seven wars he claims to have endedS

The award nominations ended in January, just when Trump’s second term began as president. A A White House employee said on Friday “The Nobel Committee has proved that they are setting policy over peace.”

Machado said he was “very joyful” to talk to the US president and “is able to convey our assessment.”

The 58-year-old, forced to live to hide most of the past year, was welcomed by the Nobel Committee as “one of the most unusual examples of civil courage in Latin America lately.”

Nobel Chairman Jogen Watn Friedns said she was recognized as “her struggle to achieve a fair and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

He added: “Despite the serious threats against her life, she remained in the country, a choice that inspired millions.”

Machado was banned from running for last year’s presidential election, in which Maduro won the third six -year term of office.

The elections were widely rejected on the international scene as neither free nor fair and caused protests throughout the country.

Even after she was banned from the urns, she was able to unite the notoriously divided opposition faction and managed to receive millions of Venezuelas behind the little -known candidate who replaced her on the newsletter, Edmundo Gonzalez.

When the government -controlled National Election Board declared Maduro the winner – although Tali from the polling stations showed that Gonzalez had won from a landslide – Machado continued to campaign from hiding, as the Maduro government threatened her with arrest.

Machado told BBC Mundo that her award was “as an injection” for her political movement.

“It infuses energy, hope, the power of the Venezuelan people, because we realize that we are not alone,” she added. “Democrats around the world share our struggle.”

She said she believes Trump and the international community are already helping the political situation in Venezuela.

“The Venezuela regime is a criminal structure,” Machado told the BBC. “And as such, it is maintained by criminal flows of their illegal activities.

“We need the international community to reduce those flows that are not only used for corruption, but also for repression, violence and terror.

“So when you cut the tributary that come from drug trafficking, gold smuggling, weapons smuggling, human trafficking or black oil market, then the regime falls.

“And that’s exactly what we see, cracks that are getting deep and deeper as we talk right now.”

Earlier this month, the US forces killed four people in an attack on a boat off the coast of Venezuela, who is said to have removed drugs.

It was the latest in a number of recent US boat strikes in international waters, which is said to have been involved in drug trafficking.

They have attracted a conviction in countries, including Venezuela and Colombia, with some international lawyers describing strikes as a violation of international law.

Thursday Colombian President Gustavo Petro said one of the boats He was a “Colombian with Colombian citizens inside,” a claim that the White House is called “unfounded”.