Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado defended giving her medal to President Donald Trump last week at the White House, even though the Nobel Foundation said the award cannot "even symbolically be passed on or further distributed."
"I already said what I meant and what it means to the Venezuelan people to present President Trump with our gratitude for what he has done," Machado told reporters Tuesday on Capitol Hill.
Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, met with lawmakers Tuesday and called for the Americas to be "free from communism, dictatorship and narcoterrorism," and said that after her country is free, "we will keep working and we will have a free Cuba and a free Nicaragua."
"This is a historic moment and we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for, yes, the commitment, resilience, generosity and courage of the Venezuelan people, but also because we have counted with the support, vision and courage of incredible leaders such as the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and members of this honorable Congress," Machado said.
Machado gave Trump her medal on Jan. 15, nearly two weeks after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores and brought them to New York to face federal drug charges.
Machado said she told Trump about a medal adorned with President George Washington's likeness that Revolutionary War Gen. Marquis de Lafayette handed to Venezuelan revolutionary Simon Bolívar.
"Two hundred years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom," Machado told reporters after gifting the medal to Trump.
Trump later shared photos of himself holding a frame containing the prize, with Machado by his side in the Oval Office.
On Sunday, the Nobel Foundation said in a statement: "One of the core missions of the Nobel Foundation is to safeguard the dignity of the Nobel Prizes and their administration. The Foundation upholds Alfred Nobel's will and its stipulations.
"It states that the prizes shall be awarded to those who 'have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind,' and it specifies who has the right to award each respective prize. A prize can therefore not, even symbolically, be passed on or further distributed."
The Norwegian Nobel Committee stated Jan. 16 that although the physical awards can be given away, the honor itself is "inseparably linked" to the winner.
"Regardless of what may happen to the medal, the diploma, or the prize money, it is and remains the original laureate who is recorded in history as the recipient of the prize," the committee stated. "Even if the medal or diploma later comes into someone else's possession, this does not alter who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize."
Norwegian Labour Party politician Raymond Johansen slammed Trump for accepting Machado's award, calling it "incredibly embarrassing and damaging." And Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said Trump "looked kind of silly" for letting Machado give the medal to him.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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