Just over 24 hours after Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize, President Gustavo Petro launched strong criticism toward her.
Although he had sent an ambiguous message of congratulations shortly before, this Saturday, October 11, the head of state hardened his position, questioning a letter dated December 2018, where Machado requested help from the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, to overthrow the Venezuelan regime.
“Why are you asking for help from a criminal against humanity, with an international arrest warrant, to bring democracy to Venezuela?”, questioned the first president, adding: What does it mean that you seek support from the only Latin American president who supported genocide and the genocidal?”.
The president also questioned the Nobel committee’s decision to encourage “that global alliance that could only be one of barbarism and war, and not peace.”
He insisted that Netanyahu cannot be associated with any action for Venezuela because, according to him, “that can only mean genocide against the people and illegal armed and international aggression against Venezuela.”
Petro stressed that, in 2018, the situation in Gaza had not escalated to the current point and recalled that the Israeli leader was already facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mrs. María Corina Machado:
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) October 11, 2025
This letter that I present below was published with your signature and is addressed to Benjamin Netanyahu and Mauricio Macri, before the genocide in Gaza took place.
To Macri, thanking part of his people for having been welcomed there (most of the… https://t.co/lWVZWNHsiO
In addition, the president criticized the military intervention in the Caribbean under the presidency of Donald Trump, alleging that under the pretext of drug trafficking, missiles had been launched that “have fallen in Gaza, but now they also fall on boats with Caribbean people inside... who have been killed without asking their names or what they were carrying on the boats.”
“With all due respect to you, it is not by bringing Netanyahu to action for Venezuela that the Venezuelan people will be helped,” he concluded.
