Pope Leo XIV received Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado at the Vatican on Monday, the Holy See's press office reported. The meeting between the Nobel laureate and the Pope was announced in the bulletin with the Pope's morning agenda, but as usual, no further details were provided. In his speech to the diplomatic corps on Friday, Pope Leo XIV called for respect for the will of the Venezuelan people and for peaceful solutions free from "partisan interests". The Vatican has been closely following the situation in Venezuela, and The Washington Post reported on January 9 that the Holy See had attempted to negotiate an asylum offer in Russia for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro before his arrest and detention by U.S. forces. The newspaper reported on a conversation between the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, regarding a supposed Russian proposal to grant asylum to Maduro. "We are fine, we are fighters," was quoted as saying Machado after the meeting.
