The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize recipient and Venezuelan political activist María Corina Machado said she plans to return to her home country “as soon as possible” following the weekend capture of its dictatorial leader Nicolás Maduro.
Machado quietly fled the country last month ahead of the Nobel ceremony after spending more than a year in hiding. She told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday night that she is more effective in the fight for democracy outside Venezuela, where she can speak out without fear for her life.
Machado won the prestigious award last year for her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” She told Hannity that on behalf of her and the people of Venezuela, she would like to share it with President Donald Trump.
“As soon as I learned that we had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I dedicated it to President Trump because I believed at that point that he deserved it,” Machado said. When Trump announced the successful capture of Maduro and his wife on Jan. 3, “I think he has proven to the world what he means,” she continued. “Jan. 3 will go down in history as the day justice defeated a tyranny. It’s a milestone, and it’s not only huge for the Venezuelan people and our future. I think it’s a huge step for humanity, for freedom and human dignity.”
Machado, who has challenged the socialist leader for decades, became a prominent opposition figure to Maduro back in 2023 when she won 92% of the 2.4 million votes in the race for who would run against Maduro in the presidential election. But Maduro’s government ultimately denounced Machado and deemed her win illegitimate.
She then worked alongside Venezuelan politician and diplomat Edmundo González, widely recognized as the winner of the 2024 presidential election.
‘Venezuela is still not free’
Despite Maduro’s capture, Machado said the fight for democracy is not over. On Monday, Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was sworn in as interim president. Machado warned that this “is really alarming.”
Rodriguez “is one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narco-trafficking,” Machado told Hannity. “She’s the main ally and liaison with Russia, China, Iran, certainly not an individual that could be, you know, trusted by international investors, and she’s really rejected by the Venezuelan people.”
She added that on Monday, an executive order, which was apparently signed by Maduro, calls for the detention and persecution of any Venezuelan who is outspoken about their support for Trump’s actions, noting that 14 journalists were already arrested.
Venezuelan-American journalist Germania Rodriguez Poleo also told Fox News that people need to understand that “Venezuela is still not free.”
“We’re still under the same tyranny. We have hope, but my friends, my family in Venezuela remain terrorized by the regime,” she continued, “that’s why you don’t see them celebrating on the streets, because they’re scared for their life. The regime said they’re going to imprison everyone who goes out. But they are hopeful. They are afraid of what comes next, but they feel they have hope.”
A daughter of a Venezuelan journalist, Rodriguez Poleo, and her mother escaped the country due to her mother’s outspoken writings on former dictator Hugo Chávez.
When asked her thoughts on interim president Rodriguez, Rodriguez Poleo said, “She’s even more radical than Maduro.”
“She’s actually the daughter of a Venezuelan terrorist who kidnapped an American businessman and was eventually killed by police forces,” she added. “That really shows you how she’s a true ideologue, but she’s very smart and worldly, and she knows how to handle herself. So right now, we Venezuelans fear that they’re going to leave us with Delcy Rodriguez, who we know as our chief of torture.”