Inside the European and US alliances of Venezuelan opposition leader Machado

Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Venezuelan opposition figure María Corina Machado has many friends in Europe, in addition to US President Donald Trump and his Latin American allies.

For example, the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which has close ties to the Free Democrats (FDP), the junior partner in Germany’s previous “traffic light” coalition, stated that it is “proud” to have been cooperating “intensively for years” with the right-wing Machado and her supporters.

Machado, who has been involved in several coup attempts in Venezuela and has defended American sanctions against her country, also works with the Patriots for Europe (PfE), a right-wing alliance in the European Parliament (EP) that includes Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party.

The PfE event in September, where Machado also gave a speech, was held under the slogan “The Reconquista begins.” “Reconquista” (reconquest) is the name given to the efforts and aims of Christians on the Iberian Peninsula during the Al-Andalus period to eliminate the Muslim presence there.

She was also involved in the coup against Chávez

Hailing from a wealthy and conservative business family in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, María Corina Machado has always been part of the far-right wing of the opposition against Presidents Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) and Nicolás Maduro (since 2013).

Machado’s signature even appeared on the Carmona Decree of April 12, 2002, which dissolved the parliament and the Supreme Court and suspended numerous other officials following the coup against Chávez.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Machado was one of four activists from the right-wing Venezuelan opposition who attempted a coup in 2019 by unilaterally declaring parliament speaker Juan Guaidó as president.

At the time, this attempt was openly supported by Germany and the EU; the US recognized Guaidó as president, but the plan ultimately failed.

Machado has always maintained close relations with the US. At the end of May 2005, she was received at the White House by US President George W. Bush, with whom she reportedly had a meeting lasting about an hour.

The German foundation connection: Dirty coups in Latin America

She also has good relations with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, which is close to the FDP and recently stated it was “proud to have worked closely with Machado and her supporters for many years.”

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation has been connected to Machado’s party, Vente Venezuela, since 2017 through the RELIAL (Red Liberal de América Latina) network.

RELIAL was founded in 2004 at the initiative of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and continues to receive its support. The network brings together right-wing liberal organizations from across Latin America, each representing the interests of the subcontinent’s “old white elites.”

RELIAL members have occasionally been involved in coups. Officials from the RELIAL member Partido Liberal de Honduras (PLH) played a leading role in the coup in Tegucigalpa in June 2009.

The Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico (PLRA) in Paraguay was also a member of RELIAL when its leader, Federico Franco, seized power in Asunción in June 2012.

The right-wing ‘Venezuela Coalition’ in the EU had awarded Machado

Before receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, Machado had received the European Parliament’s “Sakharov Prize” as a result of a vote that helped establish a far-right parliamentary majority.

Prior to this, in September 2024, the EP had adopted a resolution recognizing Edmundo González, the candidate who lost the Venezuelan election on July 28, 2024, as the winner.

The resolution was proposed by the “center-right” European People’s Party (EPP) and the nationalist-conservative European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which includes Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.

The resolution secured a majority thanks to the support of several members of the right-wing Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group, led by PfE and AfD.

When the Parliament voted on the Sakharov Prize in October 2024, González and Machado received it only with the support of the ECR and PfE.

Since then, the majority that brings together all shades of the right, supported by the EPP, ECR, PfE, and partly the ESN, has been dubbed the “Venezuela coalition.”

Christian conqueror ideology in the heart of Europe

Machado has intensified her cooperation with PfE this year. For example, on February 8, she participated via video conference in a major PfE event in Madrid titled “Make Europe Great Again.”

The event was organized by the Spanish party Vox, which has good relations with the far-right in Latin America. At the February 8 event, which was also attended by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Marine Le Pen, reports indicate that “all speakers made harsh criticisms against immigrants” and “most called for a new ‘Reconquista’.”

At the end of May, Machado participated, again via video conference, in this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event in Hungary.

Machado also joined another major event organized by Vox in Madrid on September 13-14, Europa Viva, with a video speech.

At the meeting, held under the slogan “The Reconquista Begins,” Vox leader Santiago Abascal criticized the “caliphate of Brussels,” referring to the European Commission. Argentine President Javier Milei also delivered a video speech at the meeting.

In response, on October 10, PfE congratulated Nobel Peace Prize laureate Machado, stating that she is a “special inspiration for everyone” who “fights by peaceful means for the triumph of justice and freedom.”

The link between Machado and Likud: The new European right

Israel’s ruling party, Likud, which Machado is associated with, also holds observer status in PfE.

Machado and her party, Vente Venezuela, have long expanded their contacts with the Israeli right wing. On July 21, 2020, Machado, representing Vente Venezuela, and Eli Vered Hazan, representing Likud, signed an “Inter-Party Agreement” in which they declared their intention to form an “alliance” with each other.

On February 26 of this year, the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., released a podcast in which he interviewed Machado. Machado has not spoken with the president himself, at least since he took office, but she has had detailed discussions with leading officials from the US State Department, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Machado approves of the actions of the Trump administration, which has greatly increased pressure on Venezuela since taking office and has had the US military sink several Venezuelan ships on the unproven pretext that they belonged to drug cartels.

When asked if she agreed with this, despite the undisputed fact that Venezuelan citizens were killed in the process, Machado reiterated that she thought the “elimination of this criminal infrastructure” was a good thing.

Machado has described Trump as “the greatest opportunity they have ever had.”

Indeed, after receiving the Nobel Prize, Machado reported that she called Trump to express her thanks and also said that Trump would “deserve” the award next year.