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Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Colina Machado held a private audience with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on Monday.
During the meeting, Ms Machado called on the Pope to intercede and free hundreds of Political prisoners currently held in Latin American countries.
The meeting, which was not publicly listed among Pope Leo’s scheduled appointments, was later confirmed by the Vatican in its daily bulletin without further details.
multiple sclerosis Machado is currently touring Europe After hiding for 11 months, she resurfaced in December to accept the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway.
“I am honored to share with His Holiness today and express my gratitude for his continued support of what is happening in our country,” Machado said in a statement after the meeting.
She added: “I also expressed to him the strength of the Venezuelan people, who remain steadfast and pray for Venezuela’s freedom, and I asked him to intercede for all Venezuelans who are still kidnapped and missing.”
Machado also held talks with Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, who served as ambassador to Venezuela from 2009 to 2013.
Pope Leo called for Venezuela to remain independent after U.S. troops captured former President Nicolás Maduro at his compound in Caracas and took him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges.
Leo said he was “deeply concerned” about developments in Venezuela and urged the protection of human and civil rights in the Latin American country.
Venezuela’s opposition, backed by successive Republican and Democratic administrations in the United States, has for years vowed to immediately replace Maduro with one of its own and restore democracy to the oil-rich country. But the President of the United States Donald Trump Putting Maduro’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez in power dealt them a heavy blow.
Meanwhile, most opposition leaders, including Machado, are in exile or in prison.
After winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, Machado said she wanted to award it or share it with Trump.
Shortly after the award was announced, Machado dedicated the award to Trump and the Venezuelan people. Since returning to the presidency in January 2025, Trump has coveted and publicly campaigned for himself a Nobel Prize.
However, the organization that oversees the Nobel Peace Prize – the Norwegian Nobel Institute – said that once the prize is announced, it cannot be withdrawn, transferred or shared with others.
“This decision is final and will forever be effective,” the company said in a brief statement last week.