The far-right Venezuelan political figure thanked Trump for bombing her country and abducting President Nicolas Maduro
News Desk - The Cradle
“It’s a total lack of respect for the award, on her part,” said Janne Haaland Matlary, a former politician who now teaches at the University of Oslo, calling the act “meaningless” and “pathetic.”
Trygve Slagsvold Vedum, the leader of the Centre Party, criticized Trump for accepting the medal.
“Whoever has received the prize has received the prize. The fact that Trump accepted the medal says something about him as a type of person: a classic showoff who wants to adorn himself with other people’s honours and work,” he stated.
Machado received the award on 10 December despite her years-long efforts to promote violent regime change in her home country.
On 3 January, Trump bombed Venezuela, killing over 100 people and abducting President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. Both are now imprisoned in New York City, facing trumped-up “narco-terrorism” charges.
In the months leading up to the operation, Trump ordered air strikes on fishing boats allegedly carrying drugs in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, extrajudicially killing at least another 100 people.
Machado first floated the idea of giving the award to Trump in January to thank him for toppling Maduro.
Trump accepted the medal from Machado at a White House meeting on Thursday. He deserved the medal as “a recognition of his unique commitment with our freedom,” Machado told him.
Trump had earlier said he deserved to win the award, despite bombing Iran and Nigeria since coming into office, as well as providing weapons to Israel to continue its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
Trump has threatened to bomb Iran again and to take control of Greenland from Denmark using military force.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement last week that the prize cannot be transferred or shared.
“This is, above all, absurd. The peace prize cannot be given away,” stated Kirsti Bergsto, the leader of Norway’s Socialist Left party.
“Trump will no doubt claim that he has now received it, but it cannot be transferred, and Trump’s repeated threats toward Greenland clearly demonstrate why it would have been madness to award him the prize,” Bergsto added.
“This is unbelievably embarrassing and damaging to one of the world’s most recognized and important prizes,” Raymond Johansen, a former Oslo mayor with the ruling Labor Party, said in a Facebook post.
“The awarding of the prize is now so politicized and potentially dangerous that it could easily legitimize an anti-peace prize development.”
The New York Times noted that “It is unclear what Ms. Machado gained out of her meeting with Mr. Trump.”
After abducting Maduro, Trump declined to install her in power, saying that “she’s a very nice woman, but she doesn’t have the respect” necessary to rule the country.
The Nobel Peace Prize is widely regarded as the most distinguished global honor for achievements in diplomacy. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes created under the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who died in 1896.
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