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Pope Leo XIV received the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, María Corina Machado, in an official audience this Monday, January 12, at the Vatican Apostolic Palace.
The meeting, confirmed by Vatican Media and reported by international media, represents a politically and symbolically significant gesture amid the transition process that Venezuela is experiencing following the capture of Nicolás Maduro.
The hearing takes place just ten days after the U.S. military operation "Absolute Resolution," carried out on January 3 in Caracas, which resulted in the arrest of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, both of whom were transferred to the United States and detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.
According to international sources, around 80 Venezuelan and Cuban military personnel and civilians died in the operation, a toll that has intensified the international debate on intervention and its political consequences.
Machado, leader of the liberal party Vente Venezuela and one of the strongest voices against Chavismo, had asked the Pope in October to intercede for the release of political prisoners.
His meeting with León XIV comes at a time when Delcy Rodríguez is serving as the interim president in Caracas, and an international mediation process is beginning.
In this context, Donald Trump announced an upcoming meeting with Machado in Washington, which reinforces her profile as a key interlocutor in the post-Chavez stage.
The Pontiff has consistently expressed concern for the Venezuelan crisis. In his Angelus on January 4, a day after Maduro's capture, he urged that “the well-being of the beloved Venezuelan people prevails over any other consideration” and called to “overcome violence and build paths of justice and peace, ensuring the country's sovereignty.”
He reiterated the message on January 9, before the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, urging respect for "the will of the Venezuelan people and the human and civil rights of all."
The papal gesture comes at a time of heightened tension with Caracas. Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil harshly criticized the Pontiff for his comments about Venezuela and denied any connection between the state and drug trafficking.
“Venezuela is neither a drug-trafficking state nor has it ever been,” he stated, accusing foreign powers of spreading a “self-serving political narrative.” Gil even invited the Pope to “get to know” the Venezuelan reality more closely, defending the “sovereignty and dignity of the people.”
Although details of the meeting did not emerge, the image of María Corina Machado with León XIV has been interpreted as a moral endorsement of the Venezuelan democratic cause and a signal that the Vatican aims to regain its role as a mediator in the political reconstruction of the country.
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