Editorials & Other Articles

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
and
Maham Javaid

President Donald Trump said he would accept the Nobel Peace Prize if this year’s prize winner, María Corina Machado, offered it to him when she meets with him next week, but Nobel officials quickly announced Friday that the prize may not be shared or transferred.
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“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared or transferred to others,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Friday. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”

“I understand she’s coming in next week sometime, and I look forward to saying hello to her,” Trump said of the Venezuelan opposition leader during an interview with Fox News’s Sean Hannity that aired Thursday. Trump added that he heard Machado wants to give him the prize, and that it would be “a great honor.”

On Friday, the United States and Venezuela took halting first steps toward a resumption of diplomacy. A delegation of Venezuelan diplomats is expected to arrive in Washington in the coming days, according to a statement by the Venezuelan government. And on Friday, diplomatic and security staff from the U.S. Venezuela Affairs Unit — including John McNamara, the interim chargé d’affaires — traveled to Caracas, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel movements in a fluid security environment.

The Venezuelan delegation and U.S. diplomats will discuss how the diplomatic missions in both countries can be reestablished after “the aggression and the kidnapping of the President of the Republic and the First Lady,” the Venezuelan government said in a statement, referring to the capture by the U.S. of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores.

It is unclear whether the newly sworn in interim President Delcy Rodríguez would be part of the Venezuelan delegation arriving in D.C.

The White House Friday morning did not provide details about Machado’s trip or specify what issues she and Trump would discuss.

In an interview with Hannity this week in which she heaped praise on Trump, Machado said she had not spoken to the U.S. president since October, when she was announced as the latest Nobel laureate.