The Nobel Peace Prize winner hailed Trump as a “visionary” just days before she won the prestigious award in Norway on Friday.
María Corina Machado, a conservative politician in Venezuela, was given the award for her work in “promoting democratic rights,” according to the Nobel committee.
Machado is the opposition leader in her country and has been forced to remain in hiding in the wake of Nicolás Maduro’s most recent election victory.
Maduro has long been accused of breaking human rights laws by global watchdogs such as Amnesty International, which suggested that there had been allegations of torture and killings by the incumbent Venezuelan government.
Since Trump’s reelection, Machado has been an outspoken supporter of the U.S. president, describing him as the “biggest opportunity we’ve ever had” for regime change in Venezuela.
She has also described the president as a “visionary.”
In September, the U.S. military attacked a Venezuelan speedboat carrying 11 people. The army claimed that the boat was carrying drug traffickers, but Venezuela insisted that only fishermen were on board.
Tensions between Venezuela and America soared following the attack, but Machado insisted to The Sunday Times that Trump was right to bomb the boat.
“I totally support his strategy,” Machado said. “And I’ve said on behalf of the Venezuelan people that we are very grateful. I think it is the right thing to do. It’s courageous. It’s visionary.”
Trump, on the other hand, has claimed that he is “not talking” about regime change in Venezuela.
Machado has claimed that she is in close contact with Marco Rubio, Trump’s Secretary of State, the son of Cuban refugees.
The U.S. has sent warships, as well as aircraft and submarine support to the Caribbean in what Rubio has described as a “counter-drug operation.”
Maduro, on the other hand, maintains that the U.S. is using the idea of a war on drugs as a cover to overthrow his government.
Machado led her opposition alliance to victory in the presidential elections last year, with Edmundo González, her chosen candidate, winning by a landslide.
However, González was blocked from taking office after Maduro declared victory despite the democratic result.
A brutal crackdown on protestors swiftly followed, with thousands of people being arrested and at least 25 people being killed.
“We have risked everything — our families, our lives, everything,” Machado said. “We won an election by landslide and we have a mandate.
“The people of Venezuela have desperately asked for real, strong support. Finally, it’s reaching us.”
Machado’s continued efforts to reinstate democracy in Venezuela resulted in her being handed the Nobel Peace Prize on October 10. She won despite Trump campaigning for months to be given the prize.
The US president has claimed that he has ended seven wars, including conflicts between Israel and Iran, as well as Thailand and Cambodia.
However, Trump had claimed that he ended a war between Serbia and Kosovo despite there being no fighting between the two nations. He brokered an economic deal between the two countries, which have long been at odds politically, in 2020.
Now, Machado has called for the US to put even more pressure on Maduro’s government, which she has claimed is close to collapsing.
Earlier this year, she praised Trump’s decision to axe licenses allowing energy companies to operate in Venezuela, a petrostate.
“This is what can weaken a criminal system, and the flow of cash in the case of the Maduro regime comes from absolutely illicit sources tied to drug trafficking, oil, gold and minerals smuggling, money laundering, and then permitted income from oil licenses,” Machado told Politico. “As a result, what’s happened is a clear statement from the Trump administration as to the threat that Venezuela poses.”
