New York: US President Donald Trump may not have received the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but the winner, an ally from Venezuela, dedicated the award to him on Friday.
Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, said on X, “I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause”!
Trump campaigned for the Nobel Peace Prize with claims of ending conflicts around the world, even a contested one about the India-Pakistan conflict, and received nominations from several countries.
But the factor that worked against him was that the nominations to Norway’s Parliament closed on January 31, long before he waded into diplomacy.
And what is probably his consequential success so far – the initial peace deal on Gaza – came this month as the five-member prize committee of Norway’s Parliament had already picked the winner.
Nevertheless, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung took a shot at the panel, saying on X, “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace”.
But Trump appeared to take it in his stride, proudly reposting on Truth Social Machado’s X post that said, “We are on the threshold of victory and today more than ever we count on President Trump, the people of the United States, the peoples of Latin America, and the democratic nations of the world as our main allies to achieve Freedom and democracy”.
For the committee which chose her, it was a safe bet, selecting a leader aligned internationally with Trump, but also sending a message against authoritarianism.
The announcement said, “She is receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights”, adding, “At a time when democracy is under threat, it is more important than ever to defend this common ground”.
Those for or against Trump can both see between the lines some vindication in the choice.
The prize committee also avoided picking international groups or persons who may appear to be at odds with Trump.
It said it had received 338 nominations, 244 of them individuals and 94 organisations.
The leader of the Vente Venezuela Party, Machado, has been the pivot of the opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who is accused of being anti-democratic, and has been hiding from the regime.
Barred from running in last year’s election, she backed the opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, who claimed to have won the election – an assertion backed by some international observers and the US, both under Trump and his predecessor Biden.
Trump intensified the campaign against Maduro, adding a military element to the US opposition that was also in Biden’s administration.
Trump has positioned Navy ships in the direction of Venezuela and launched an air campaign, shooting down boats that his administration says carry drugs to the US.
Machado backed Trump’s campaign, saying in an interview that it saves American and Venezuelan lives.
“Maduro is the head of a narco-terrorist structure of cooperation”, she said, and Trump’s actions would save “not only Venezuelan lives, but also the lives of the American people”.
US officials have accused Maduro of narco-terrorism, and he is facing a case in a New York federal court accusing him of drug-smuggling.
Machado, a conservative, has opposed both the political and economic policies of Maduro, a self-proclaimed socialist, under whom the country has suffered.
The Nobel Committee noted, “Venezuela has evolved from a relatively democratic and prosperous country to a brutal, authoritarian state that is now suffering a humanitarian and economic crisis. Most Venezuelans live in deep poverty, even as the few at the top enrich themselves”.
(IANS)
