US PresidentDonald Trumpis scheduled to meet Thursday with Venezuelan opposition leaderMaria Corina Machado, whose pro-democracy movement he has sidelined since toppling her country's leader, andwhose Nobel Peace Prizehe openly envies.
Machado'sWhite Housevisit comes a day after Trump used glowing terms to describe his first known call withVenezuela's interim presidentDelcy Rodriguez, confirming his satisfaction with the allies ofNicolas Maduroremaining in power, for now at least.
Trumpcalled Rodriguez a "terrific person"and hailed "terrific progress" made since US special forces seized Maduro and his wife in a deadly raid.
Rodriguez said the call was "productive and courteous," and characterized by "mutual respect."
"Many topics were discussed," Trump said on social media, "including Oil, Minerals, Trade and, of course, National Security."
Notably absent was any mention of a political transition, an issue that Washington has recently downplayed compared to economic concerns, especially access to Venezuelan oil.
Machado, who campaigned for years to end Maduro's rule, will seek Thursday to bring the issue back into the foreground.
Read moreNobel Peace Prize winner Machado vows 'Venezuela will be free'
Nobel sharing?
Machado, 58, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year for her activism in pursuit of democracy in Venezuela, despite threats of imprisonment by Maduro's government.
Venezuela's opposition has argued and presented evidence that Maduro stole the 2024 election from Machado's party, namely candidateEdmundo Gonzalez Urrutiaclaims supported by Washington.
Venezuela's electoral authorities, seen as allied with Maduro, never released data from the vote.
Hundreds of people were arrested in post-election protests, and while Gonzalez Urrutia fled to Europe for asylum, Machado remained in the country in a hidden location, appearing only intermittently at rallies.
She appeared in Oslo, Norway last month to collect her Nobel prize after a daring escape by boat, and has not yet returned to her home country.
Trump has openly fumed about not being awarded the prize, calling it a "major embarrassment" for Norway.
Machado has offered to share her award with Trump, and the president indicated she might give it to him when they meet.
"I understand she wants to do that. That would be a great honor," Trump said in a recent Fox News interview.
The Nobel Institute has stressed that the prize cannot be transferred from one person to another.
Prisoner releases
Under pressure from Washington, Venezuela has released dozens ofpolitical prisonersin the past week, though hundreds remain behind bars.
Rodriguez claimed a total of 406 political prisoners had been released since December in a process that "has not yet concluded."
The Foro Penal legal rights NGO, which defends many of the detainees, gave a much smaller tally of around 180 freed.
Read moreVenezuela releases political prisoners in deal with Washington
AFP's count, based on data from NGOs and opposition parties, showed 70 people released since the fall of Maduro, who has been taken to the United States to face trial for allegeddrug trafficking.
To avoid scenes of jubilant opposition activists punching the air as they walk free from prison, the authorities have been releasing them quietly at other locations, far from the TV cameras and relatives waiting outside detention centers.
The United States on Wednesday seized another tanker in the Caribbean in its campaign to control oil leaving Venezuela.
Marines and sailors apprehended the Tanker Veronica without incident in a pre-dawn raid, theUS militarycommand said on social media, with a video showing soldiers rappelling onto a vessel's deck.
"The only oil leaving Venezuela will be oil that is coordinated properly and lawfully," it said. The tanker is the sixth seized in recent weeks.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Originally published on France24
