Pope Leo XIV has held a private meeting with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel laureate MarÃa Corina Machado at the Vatican.
The audience took place on Monday, January 12, inside the library of the Vatican Apostolic Palace, and was not originally listed on the Pope’s official schedule. A brief video released by the Vatican showed both leaders exchanging greetings and smiling as they sat together in the Pope’s official office.
In a statement shared on X by the Venezuelan opposition coalition Comando con Venezuela, Machado said she appealed to the Pope to intercede for the release of more than 1,000 political prisoners and to support an immediate transition to democracy in Venezuela.
“I had the blessing and honor of sharing with His Holiness and thanking him for monitoring events in our country,” Machado said, adding that she asked the Pope to pray and intervene for Venezuelans who remain *“kidnapped and missing.”
Machado also reiterated that the will of the Venezuelan people, expressed in the 2024 election, was ignored after the victory of Edmundo González was overturned by electoral authorities loyal to Nicolás Maduro.
According to the statement, she described Venezuela’s struggle as both political and spiritual, saying that with the support of the Church and increasing international pressure—particularly from the United States—the “defeat of evil” is drawing closer.
After meeting the Pope, Machado also held talks with Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State.
The high-profile meeting comes amid heightened tensions in Venezuela, following reports that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured earlier this month in a U.S. military operation and are now facing narco-terrorism conspiracy charges in New York.
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