This image released by Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV meeting with Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado of Venezuela, right, inside his private library at the Vatican on Monday.
| Photo Credit: AP
Pope Leo met Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel peace prize winner Maria Corina Machado on Monday (January 12, 2026), the Vatican said, but did not provide any further details.
The meeting, listed among the Pope’s appointments for Monday in a daily Vatican statement, had not been included in an earlier advisory to the press about Pope Leo’s planned schedule for the day.
Leo, the first U.S. Pope, has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after the capture by U.S. forces of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on the orders of President Donald Trump.
In a major foreign policy speech on Friday, the Pope decried the use of military force as a means of achieving diplomatic goals and called for human rights to be protected in Venezuela.
Ms. Machado, a former National Assembly member, was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 general election by authorities aligned with Mr. Maduro.
She backed a stand-in candidate who was widely considered to have won the vote, although Mr. Maduro claimed victory. Ballot audits by independent observers showed irregularities in the official results.
Published – January 12, 2026 05:39 pm IST
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