Donald Trump chose not to back Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado to lead the country because she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, according to reports.
On Monday, Delcy Rodríguez is to be sworn in as Venezuela’s new leader after American forces captured president Nicolás Maduro in a military operation over the weekend.
Rodriguez was Maduro’s vice-president, and was officially designated as interim president following his capture.
But many had wondered if Machado would be endorsed by the Trump administration to become Venezuela’s new leader, given she was the government’s opposition and the main critic of Maduro’s government.
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It seems the reason Trump decided not to though was because she didn’t give up the Nobel Peace Prize for him though.
Sources close to the White House said Machado’s decision to accept the award instead of demanding that it be given to Trump was the “ultimate sin.”
They told the Washington Post: “If she had turned it down and said, ‘I can’t accept it because it’s Donald Trump’s,’ she’d ben the president of Venezuela today.”
In awarding her the peace prize in October, the Nobel committee praised her “tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela” and her “struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.
In the lead-up to the award, there had been speculation over whether Trump would be handed it.
Although Rodríguez will be sworn in as Venezuela’s new president on Monday, Trump has said the country will be run by the US until a “afe and proper and judicious transition” is possible.