Venezuelan opposition leader meets with Pope Leo ahead of Trump trip© Andrea Hernández Briceño/for The Washington Post
VATICAN CITY — On a mission to lobby for a democratic transition in Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro, opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado met Monday with Pope Leo XIV ahead of her trip to Washington to see President Donald Trump.
Machado’s previously unannounced meeting with the pontiff, confirmed by the Vatican, came as the Holy See has emerged as a significant interlocutor on the future of Venezuela, and as Machado is pushing for a shift away from the authoritarian left-wing power structure that remains in place despite the Jan. 3 U.S. mission that seized the Venezuelan leader. In a photo published by the Vatican following the meeting, Machado, clad in a black dress and wearing a white rosary, shook hands as she and Leo smiled.
On Friday, The Washington Post reported that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state and the No. 2 at the Vatican, had sought to caution American officials in December against rash action in Venezuela and to nudge Maduro toward a Russian offer of asylum.
Machado and the Venezuela opposition have hailed Maduro’s capture and praised Trump for ordering the mission. But they have been privately alarmed by the White House decision to, at least for now, back Maduro’s No. 2, Delcy Rodríguez, as interim leader. The opposition is now locked in a tug-of-war for international influence with the still-ruling leftists in power, arguing that a democratic transition is the only answer to Venezuela’s future.
Pope Leo XIV meets with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Machado at the Vatican, on Monday.© Simone Risoluti/via REUTERS
