US President Donald Trump said Thursday that Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado will be in Washington next week, indicating he planned to meet with the Nobel Peace Prize winner.
“I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview.
The meeting would be the first between the US president and Machado and comes just over a week after US forces captured Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife and whisked them to New York to face trial on drug and weapons charges.
Trump said last week that Machado does not have the respect or support within Venezuela to lead the country and has since suggested the US could effectively control Venezuela for years.
This combination of file pictures shows (L) US President Donald Trump as he arrive for a visit to the USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier and (R) Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro delivering a speech during a military ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna in Caracas.
He told Fox News on Thursday that the South American country, currently led by interim President Delcy Rodriguez, was not in a position to hold fresh elections.
“We have to rebuild the country. They couldn’t have an election,” he said.
“They wouldn’t even know how to have an election right now.”
Machado has offered to share her Nobel Prize with Trump, who has said he deserved the award.
On Thursday, Trump said it was a “major embarrassment” for Norway that he did not win the prize, which is awarded by a Norwegian committee.
He indicated Machado might give him her Nobel Prize when they meet.
“I understand she wants to do that. That would be a great honor,” Trump said.
AFP
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