The President of the United States, Donald Trump, said this Friday (16) that he did not support Venezuela’s opposition leader, María Corina Machado, to lead the Caribbean country because he feared a situation similar to that in Iraq after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, in 2003, due to an American invasion.
“Well, if you remember a place called Iraq, where everybody was fired, absolutely everybody, the police, the generals, everybody was fired, and they ended up becoming the Islamic State,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House to spend the weekend in Florida. “So, I remember that,” he added, according to information from CNN.
Despite this comment, Trump praised María Corina, who visited him on Thursday (15) at the White House and presented the American president with the medal for receiving the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
“I had a great meeting yesterday with someone I have a lot of respect for, and she obviously has respect for me and our country, and she gave me her Nobel Prize,” said Trump, who explained why he accepted the medal.
“Well, she offered it to me. I thought it was very kind. She said, ‘You ended eight wars, and no one deserves this award more than you in history’. And I thought it was a very kind gesture, and by the way, I think she’s a very good woman, and we’ll talk again,” said the American president.
After dictator Nicolás Maduro was captured in an American military operation on the 3rd, Trump claimed that it would be “very difficult” for María Corina to “be the leader” of Venezuela, since, according to him, the opposition “does not have the support or respect [necessários] within the country.”
He has been negotiating with interim dictator Delcy Rodríguez, called a “fantastic person” by the American president on Wednesday (14).
After the meeting with Trump, María Corina said, in an interview with Fox News, that she still hopes to be president of Venezuela one day.
“There is a mission: to transform Venezuela into this land of grace, and I believe that I will be elected president of Venezuela at the right time. When the time is right, I will be the first woman elected president of Venezuela,” she stated.
