Trump Finds His Next 'Freedom Fighter' in Venezuelan Opposition Leader
Bloomberg reports that Donald Trump is set to meet with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, lauded as a 'Nobel Peace Prize recipient' and presenting this as a promising 'opening' for Venezuela's opposition. Ignoring for a moment that Machado has not actually won a Nobel Peace Prize (a detail Bloomberg appears to have fabricated or misremembered), the story frames her as a
legitimate, organic force without bothering to detail the decades of consistent US intervention in Venezuela, from financing coup attempts to imposing crippling sanctions. Remember Juan Guaidó, anyone? The US 'recognized' him as president in 2019, despite him never having won a popular election. That particular gambit, widely mocked, cost Venezuela billions, and yielded… precisely nothing. One
might wonder if these 'openings' are less about Venezuelan self-determination and more about US geopolitical strategy, especially given Machado’s history of advocating for international intervention and her past ties to right-wing groups. How many times must Washington 'recognize' its preferred candidate before the media recognizes this pattern? It appears that for certain outlets, 'democracy' in
Latin America always looks suspiciously like a US-friendly strongman.