""But the ceremony comes at an awkward moment because Machado appears to have given up on using peaceful means to dislodge Venezuela's authoritarian regime. Machado now claims that elections in Venezuela are a sham that will never lead to the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro. She has also emerged as a full-throated supporter of President Trump's gunboat diplomacy in the Caribbean Sea, including his threats to remove Maduro by force.""
""Most people interpret the Nobel Peace Prize as (going to) someone who works through peaceful means, and that doesn't fit her very well," says David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at Tulane University. Yet Machado is a revered figure among throngs of Venezuelans, both inside the country and abroad, who are desperate for change after having watched Maduro crush their country's democracy and its economy during his nearly 13 years in power.""
Maria Corina Machado plans to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo despite embracing nonpeaceful options to remove President Nicolas Maduro. Machado asserts Venezuelan elections are a sham that cannot oust Maduro and has voiced support for President Trump's gunboat diplomacy and threats of force. Machado is a long-standing right-wing opposition leader who remained in Venezuela while many fled, building popular support and leading a campaign to back substitute candidate Edmundo Gonzalez after being banned from running. Opposition tally sheets claim Gonzalez beat Maduro by more than two-to-one, and supporters say they 'played by the democratic rules and won the election.'
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