Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado asked Pope León XIV in the Vatican on Monday to intercede for political prisoners and for the 'unhindered advance' of the transition to democracy in Venezuela. 'Today I had the blessing and honor of being able to share with His Holiness and express our gratitude for his follow-up on what is happening in our country,' said the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner on her X profile. She added: 'I also conveyed to him the strength of the Venezuelan people who remain firm and in prayer for the freedom of Venezuela, and I asked him to intercede for all Venezuelans who remain kidnapped and disappeared.' The audience between the American pontiff and the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado was a surprise but confirmed at noon (11.00 GMT) by the Holy See in its daily bulletin. The meeting takes place ten days after the forces of Donald Trump captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in Caracas and transferred them to New York to be tried for drug trafficking. Machado's Campaign Command explained that during the private audience in the Vatican, the pontiff was asked to 'intercede for the release of the more than one thousand political prisoners and for the unhindered advance of the transition to democracy in Venezuela.' Likewise, Machado defended the 'legitimacy of the president' Edmundo González Urrutia after 'the civic feat' of the July 28, 2024 elections. After her meeting with the pope, the opposition leader also met with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was nuncio in Venezuela between 2009 and 2013. María Corina Machado's visit to the Vatican comes after Trump himself announced his intention to receive her, presumably this week. Pope León XIV has alluded on several occasions to the crisis in Venezuela, most recently last Friday during his long speech to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. In that intervention, he asked that the will of the Venezuelan people be respected and peaceful solutions be sought, away from 'partisan interests.' The Vatican has been following the situation in Venezuela closely, and The Washington Post reported on Friday that the pontifical state would have tried to negotiate an offer of asylum in Russia for Nicolás Maduro, before his capture and detention by US forces.
