The Nobel Prize for regime change
The award of the so-called Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado stems from the Nobel Committee’s decision to back the Trump administration’s aggression against Venezuela.
BERLIN/CARACAS (own report) – The latest recipient of the ‘Nobel Peace Prize’, María Corina Machado, has pursued a policy of subversion and violent regime change in her country over many years. It is a policy that has in fact been supported over many years by one of Germany’s party foundations, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is aligned to the free-market FDP. The NGO has greeted the award by saying it is “proud to have collaborated closely with her and her supporters for many years.” This “pride” actually attaches to working with an ultra-right-wing Venezuelan opposition politician who has been involved in several coup attempts in Venezuela and advocates US sanctions that have pushed the population of her own country into desperate poverty. In Europe, she works with the far-right alliance Patriots for Europe (PfE), an EU-wide bloc that includes the French party Rassemblement National (RN) and the Fidesz party of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. A PfE event in September, at which Machado delivered a speech, was held under the anti-migrant theme of “The Reconquista begins”. Machado maintains particularly close contacts with the Trump administration, which is now ramping up its pressure on the Venezuelan government headed by President Nicolás Maduro. The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to this individual results from a decision to promote Washington’s aggression against Caracas.
Revolutionary
María Corina Machado comes from a wealthy conservative business family in the Venezuelan capital Caracas. From the outset, she was active in the far-right wing of the opposition to Presidents Hugo Chávez (1999 to 2013) and Nicolás Maduro (since 2013). Her signature was already on the Carmona Decree of 12 April 2002, which forcibly dissolved both Parliament and the Supreme Court immediately after the military coup against Chávez and suspended numerous officials from other bodies. The coup was to fail, but over the years Machado has supported various violent protests against the government. She has repeatedly called for tougher Western sanctions, which are causing severe hardship for the Venezuelan people. The Wall Street Journal has confirmed that she was also one of four activists from the right-wing Venezuelan opposition who played a key role in the 2019 attempt to unilaterally declare the parliamentary president, Juan Guaidó, to be the state president, thus triggering another coup attempt.[1] At the time, this illegal manoeuvre was openly supported by Germany and, indeed, the European Union. The United States gave formal recognition to Washington-aligned Guaidó as the supposed president (german-foreign-policy.com reported [2]). Ultimately, however, the plan failed.
Linked to coup plotters
Machado has always maintained close ties with the United States. At the end of May 2005, she was even received by US President George W. Bush at the White House for what was said to have been talks lasting almost an hour.[3] As for links with Germany, Machado has long enjoyed the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a government-funded NGO aligned to the free-market FDP. The Naumann Foundation responded to the peace award by declaring it was “proud to have collaborated closely with her and her supporters for many years.”[4] The political foundation is structurally linked to Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, via the RELIAL (Red Liberal de América Latina) network, of which her party has been a member since 2017. RELIAL was founded in 2004 on the initiative of the Naumann Foundation and continues to receive its support. The network brings together right-wing pro-market organisations from across Latin America, each representing the interests of the continent’s old white elites. RELIAL members have been involved in coups from time to time in various counties. For example, officials from RELIAL member Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH) played a leading role in the coup in Tegucigalpa in June 2009.[5] Paraguay’s Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) was also a member of RELIAL when its leader Federico Franco seized power in Asunción in June 2012.[6]
‘Venezuela Coalition’
Before receiving the so-called Nobel Peace Prize, Machado had already been awarded the European Parliament’s 2024 Sakharov Prize in December. That vote was important in helping to enable the prospect of an ultra-right parliamentary majority in the EU. It was preceded in September 2024 by the adoption of a resolution in which the European Parliament presumed to recognise Edmundo González, the candidate who lost Venezuela’s presidential election on 28 July 2024, as the winner of the election. That resolution was proposed by the European People’s Party (EPP) in alliance with the far-right European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which includes Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia (FdI) party. And the resolution could only find a parliamentary majority thanks to the support of the Patriots for Europe (PfE), with members like France’s Rassemblement National (RN), along with several members of the extremist Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group. The latter grouping includes Germany’s AfD.[7] When Parliament voted on the Sakharov Prize in October 2024, González and Machado could only succeed as candidates thanks to the support of the ECR and the PfE. Since then, insiders have referred to majorities supported by the EPP, ECR and PfE as the “Venezuela coalition”.
‘The Reconquista begins’
Machado has deepened her cooperation with the PfE this year. On 8 February, for example, she took part in a major PfE event in Madrid via video link. The event was organised by the Spanish far-right Vox party, which maintains good relations with the right in Latin America. At the 8 February event, which was also attended by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen from France’s RN, “All the speakers railed against immigration and most called for a new ‘Reconquista’,” noted Reuters.[8] At the end of May, Machado appeared – again via video link – at this year’s CPAC Hungary.[9] Machado participated remotely in yet another major far-right event held on 13–14 September, namely ‘Europa Viva’ in Madrid. At that gathering, with the theme “The ‘Reconquista’ Begins”, Vox President Santiago Abascal denounced the European Commission as the “Brussels caliphate”. The participants also saw Argentinian President Javier Milei giving a video address on the big screen.[10] For its part, the PfE congratulated the Nobel Peace Prize winner on 10 October, stating that Machado was a special “inspiration for all” who ‘fight by peaceful means for the triumph of justice and freedom.”[11]
‘Our greatest opportunity’
Machado and her party, Vente Venezuela, have long since spread their network of active contacts to Israel’s far right and to the Trump clan in the US. On 21 July 2020, Machado, representing Vente Venezuela, and Eli Vered Hazan, representing Israel’s ruling Likud party, signed an “inter-party agreement” in which they announced their intention to work towards an “alliance”.[12] Incidentally, Likud has become an observer member of the PfE.[13] On 26 February this year, the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr. posted a podcast in which he interviewed Machado. Machado has not spoken to the president himself, at least not since he took office, but she has had detailed exchanges with leading officials at the US State Department, including Secretary Marco Rubio.[14] Machado explicitly approves of the Trump administration’s policy of aggression, which has massively increased pressure on Venezuela and widespread suffering. US armed forces have blown several Venezuelan boats out of the water on the unproven pretext that they belonged to drug cartels. It is undisputed that these attacks amount to extrajudicial killings of Venezuelan citizens. When asked if she agreed with such actions, Machado reiterated that she thought “the dismantling of this criminal infrastructure” was a good thing.[15] Trump is, she says, “the biggest chance we’ve ever had.”
A political decision
The Nobel Peace Prize Committee’s decision to award Machado the Nobel Peace Prize is not a mistake. It is a political decision designed to promote Trump’s agenda and please him without appearing too craven. For the US president had been running an unprecedented campaign to claim the prize for himself. Trump needs Machado if he wants to overthrow Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, on whose head he has already – in another remarkable development – officially placed a bounty of 50 million US dollars. Yet Machado, for her part, has failed to gain the necessary domestic support for ousting Maduro from power. So she is dependent on outside forces which, as things stand, can only come from the United States, its military and the CIA. Machado has said she called Trump after receiving the Nobel Prize and expressed her gratitude to him. She also said she was certain that Trump would “deserve” the award next year.[16] If the Trump administration does indeed attempt to overthrow Maduro militarily, then a peace prize for Trump would, following the 2025 award to Machado, only confirm that it is actually a Nobel War Prize.
[1] David Luhnow, Juan Forero, José de Córdoba: ‘What the Hell Is Going On?’ How a Small Group Seized Control of Venezuela’s Opposition. wsj.com 07.02.2019.
[2] See: Umsturzversuch in Caracas.
[3] See: Coup Attempt in Caracas.
[4] Karl-Heinz Paqué: María Corina Machado erhält Friedensnobelpreis. freiheit.org 10.10.2025.
[5] See: Die Naumann-Fraktion and Ein Amtsenthebungsverfahren.
[6] See: Ganz liberal geputscht.
[7] See: Die Brandmauer bricht.
[8] David Latona: Orban, Le Pen hail Trump at far-right ‘Patriots’ summit in Madrid. reuters.com 08.02.2025.
[9] S. auch „Das Zeitalter der Patrioten“.
[10] Spagna: Abascal contro il ‘Califfato di Bruxelles’ e Pedro Sanchez alla convention die Vox a Madrid. agenzianova.com 14.09.2025.
[11] Patriots for Europe Congratulate María Corina Machado on the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize. Brussels, 10.10.2025.
[12] Inter-Party Agreement. July 21st, 2020.
[13] S. dazu Zu Gast in Israel.
[14], [15] Louise Callaghan: ‘Ousting Maduro? Trump is the biggest chance we’ve ever had’. thetimes.com 10.10.2025.
[16] Louise Callaghan: María Corina Machado: ‘Trump deserves the Nobel peace prize next’. thetimes.com 11.10.2025.
