Venezuelan Nobel winner Machado holds call with Netanyahu

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado holds up tally sheets in Caracas, Venezuela, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado, in a call on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hailed the fight against “totalitarian forces,” in what Israel presented as an endorsement of its Gaza offensive.

Writing on X, Netanyahu’s office said Machado told the Israeli leader she “greatly appreciates his decisions and resolute actions in the course of the war” and also praised the “agreement for the release of the hostages in Gaza.”

But in a separate post on X, opposition leader Machado, who won the Nobel for leading resistance to authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro, avoided all mention of Israel and Gaza.

In a carefully worded statement, she said Venezuelans knew that achieving peace “requires immense courage, strength, and moral clarity to stand against the totalitarian forces that oppose us.”

“Just as we fight for freedom and democracy in Venezuela, all nations in the Middle East deserve a future built on dignity, justice, and hope -- not fear,” she added.

She did however directly call out “the Iranian regime,” as “a key supporter of the Maduro regime” which also “backs terrorist organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.”

Colombia’s left-wing president Gustavo Petro, a fierce critic of Netanyahu, last week questioned the awarding of the Nobel to Machado, over her past outreach to the Israeli leader in seeking support for her campaign to oust Maduro.

Venezuela does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.

Maduro’s firebrand socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez broke off relations in 2009 in protest over the 2008 Gaza war.