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Western Media Use ‘Peace’ Prize to Fuel War Propaganda Ricardo Vaz ([link removed])


Venezuelanalysis: María Corina Machado: What the Mainstream Media Isn’t Saying About Her

Venezuelanalysis (7/8/24 ([link removed]) ): "Washington’s unswerving support for Machado may be related to her extreme version of neoliberalism, which includes the privatization of the oil industry."

The awarding of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan far-right leader María Corina Machado took nearly everyone by surprise (with the exception of insiders who apparently used advance knowledge to profit on betting markets—New York Times, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ).

The Nobel Committee justified the award ([link removed]) on the basis of Machado's “tireless work promoting democratic rights” and “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.” However, Machado’s track record paints a very different picture (Sovereign Media, 10/11/25 ([link removed]) ; Venezuelanalysis, 7/8/24 ([link removed]) ).

Rather than scrutinize the opposition politician’s credentials, the media establishment seized the opportunity to whitewash the most unpeaceful elements in her background in order to advance its cynical pro–regime change agenda targeting Venezuela's socialist government (FAIR.org, 2/12/25 ([link removed]) , 1/11/23 ([link removed]) , 6/13/22 ([link removed]) , 4/15/20 ([link removed]) ). Not coincidentally, Machado’s award coincided with an escalation of US military threats against Venezuela, meaning that corporate pundits used a “peace” prize as a platform for war propaganda.


** Whitewashed profiles
------------------------------------------------------------
NYT: A Nobel Peace Prize Brings Hope and Scrutiny to Democratic Struggle

The New York Times (10/16/25 ([link removed]) ) was one of the few outlets to acknowledge the tension between the Nobel Committee presenting Machado as a supporter of a “peaceful transition” in Venezuela and her "calls for a military insurrection and unconditional support for President Trump’s military strikes" against Venezuelan boats.

The Nobel Prize meant corporate outlets had to give their readers an idea of Machado’s political trajectory. And though some had profile pieces (Reuters, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ; New York Times, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ), there was a concerted effort to conceal the most unsavory elements. The Financial Times (10/10/25 ([link removed]) ) euphemistically stated that Machado “enter[ed] politics in opposition to Hugo Chávez”—president of Venezuela from 1999 through 2013—while the Guardian (10/10/25 ([link removed]) ) summed up that she has been “involved in politics for more than two decades.”

No establishment outlet mentioned Machado’s first relevant political action: supporting the short-lived April 2002 coup against the Chávez government, and signing ([link removed]) the infamous “Carmona Decree.” In one fell swoop, this decree did away with all democratically elected institutions, annulled the 1999 Constitution, and established a de facto dictatorship headed by the leader of Venezuela’s corporate business lobby. Machado later denied ([link removed]) signing the decree, though her name appeared on a list ([link removed]) published by Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional.

Looking past the undemocratic debut, establishment journalists instead started the story with the mid-2002 creation of Súmate, calling it an NGO dedicated to election monitoring or transparency (Bloomberg, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ; Washington Post, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ; Reuters, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ; New York Times, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ). Yet they did not mention that this alleged quest to safeguard democracy was funded by the US, or that the opposition made unfounded fraud claims after failing to unseat Chávez in a 2004 recall referendum (Venezuelanalysis, 8/21/04 ([link removed]) , 9/9/04
([link removed]) ).

Machado’s second act was also the antithesis of peace and democracy, as the opposition politician led the 2014 “La Salida” ([link removed]) (“The Exit”) campaign of street violence to overthrow the Nicolás Maduro administration, leaving dozens dead. That same year, in order to denounce the Venezuelan government, she acted as an "alternate ambassador" for Panama at a meeting of the Organization of American States (BBC, 3/25/15 ([link removed]) ). The stunt led to Machado losing her parliamentary seat.

Yet instead of scrutinizing the new laureate’s less-than-peaceful actions, corporate outlets chose to ignore or misrepresent them as “denouncing the regime’s abuses” (Washington Post, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ), “participating in anti-regime protests” (New York Times, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ) or “allegations she’d tried to foment a coup” (Bloomberg, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ). Only the Associated Press (10/10/25 ([link removed]) ) offered a minimal concession that the Machado-led “anti-government protests...at times turned violent.”

Another key aspect of the opposition operator’s political career has been outspoken advocacy ([link removed]) for US sanctions, which have caused economic devastation ([link removed]) and led to tens of thousands of deaths (CEPR, 4/25/19 ([link removed]) ). But Western media ignored Machado’s lobbying for collective punishment of the Venezuelan people—with the New York Times (10/16/25 ([link removed]) ) a notable exception.

The US-backed figure has also made no secret of her plans to repress her political opponents. Machado is on the record making thinly veiled threats to “eradicate ([link removed]) socialism,” and pledging to “neutralize ([link removed]) ” destabilizing groups should she eventually take power. Factoring in the Venezuelan far right’s history of racist violence (Venezuelanalysis, 3/28/14 ([link removed]) , 7/30/17 ([link removed]) ), it is not unreasonable to predict a dirty war against Chavistas if Machado ever reached Miraflores.


** The company you keep
------------------------------------------------------------
Reuters: Israel says Venezuela's Machado voices support in call to Netanyahu

Reuters (10/17/25 ([link removed]) ) was the only major outlet to highlight Machado's support for the genocidal ([link removed]) Israeli government.

The reporting on the Nobel Peace Prize plainly described Machado as belonging to the Venezuelan opposition, but few outlets bothered to disclose her political views, apart from euphemistically labeling her a “conservative” (New York Times, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ; Guardian, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ) or a supporter of “economic liberalism” (New York Times, 10/16/25 ([link removed]) ; Reuters, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ).

Machado has heaped praise on far-right former presidents Álvaro Uribe ([link removed]) of Colombia, who was responsible ([link removed]) for serious human rights violations, and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro ([link removed]) , who tried to foment a coup ([link removed]) .

In February, Machado sent a video message ([link removed]) during a “Patriots for Europe” summit, calling for far-right leaders’ support and openly referring to them as “allies.” The high-profile gathering featured neo-fascist parties like Spain’s Vox, Italy’s Lega and France’s Rassemblement National (RN). The same media establishment that paints the likes of Hungary's Viktor Orban ([link removed]) as a threat to democracy (Guardian, 2/7/25 ([link removed]) ; NPR, 4/22/25 ([link removed]) ) chose to ignore Machado’s quite open alignment with his politics.

But more damning is the complete erasure of Machado’s outspoken support for Israel, even amidst the recent genocide. Venezuela’s far-right leader has repeatedly ([link removed]) praised ([link removed]) Israel’s defense of “Western values” and “freedom,” while her party established an alliance ([link removed]) with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud in 2020. In 2018, Machado penned a letter ([link removed]) to the Israeli prime minister, asking him to lead a foreign intervention to "dismantle the criminal Venezuelan regime."

At a time when the US/Israeli genocide in Palestine has sparked outrage around the world, no corporate outlet found it relevant to mention that this year’s “peace” laureate did not utter a single word of condemnation. On the contrary, according ([link removed]) to Netanyahu himself, Machado told the prime minister she “appreciates” his “resolute” actions in a recent congratulatory phone call. Unsurprisingly, only Reuters (10/17/25 ([link removed]) ) briefly reported on the Nobel laureate’s war criminal ally.


** Beating the war drums
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Sovereign Media: Nobel ‘Peace’ Prize Descends Further Into Farce With Machado Award

Sovereign Media (10/11/25 ([link removed]) ) noted Machado's support for "sanctions that have caused tens of thousands of deaths since 2017" and "on-the-record requests for a foreign military intervention."

The media establishment’s careful whitewashing of Machado’s undemocratic past and genocidal allies is particularly damning, given the present context of a US military buildup and overt threats against Venezuela. One of the US-backed politician’s most persistent ([link removed]) habits has been calling for a foreign intervention ([link removed]) against her country (Sovereign Media, 10/11/25 ([link removed]) ).

In the wake of her peace prize, Machado has wasted no time in lobbying for violent regime change. In a BBC interview (10/11/25 ([link removed]) ), she argued that Venezuela needs to be “liberated” via a “coordination of internal and external forces,” an expression she also used in an interview with El País (10/10/25 ([link removed]) ).

Borrowing a page from US administration’s book of redefining concepts such as “imminent threat ([link removed]) ” or “civilian ([link removed]) ,” Machado bombastically claimed that the Maduro government “has declared a war” against the Venezuelan people, and urged Trump to help her side “win” this war (BBC, 10/11/25 ([link removed]) ; Infobae, 10/11/25 ([link removed]) ; CNN, 10/15/25 ([link removed]) ). The opposition leader has latched onto the administration’s “narcoterrorism” fairy tale that has been debunked over the years (FAIR.org, 9/24/19 ([link removed]
g/home/media-continue-to-push-misinformation-about-venezuela-and-drug-trafficking/) ; Venezuelanalysis, 9/2/25 ([link removed]) ), just like she supported the White House’s Tren de Aragua narrative ([link removed]) , even if it meant a gruesome crackdown against Venezuelan migrants.

Machado has gone as far as to cheerlead the Trump administration extrajudicially executing her fellow citizens, arguing that the lethal US strikes in the Caribbean, which have killed at least 30 people, are “saving lives, not only Venezuelan lives, but also life of American people” (Daily Beast, 10/10/25 ([link removed]) ).

But it is not just Machado using her new platform to promote US military intervention. The Washington Post editorial board (10/10/25 ([link removed]) ) openly expressed that US interests would be “better served” with a “reliable American partner” like Machado. True to form, the Wall Street Journal (10/10/25 ([link removed]) , 10/12/25 ([link removed]) ) also used Machado’s award to double down on calls for Trump to bomb Venezuela in the name of “freedom” and “democracy.”

The warmonger lineup was complete with the New York Times’ Bret Stephens ([link removed]) (10/10/25 ([link removed]) ), who never needs excuses to endorse the murder of Venezuelans in the name of US interests (FAIR.org, 2/12/25 ([link removed]) ). In this case, Stephens claimed that regime change is the only option to address the “catastrophe of Chavismo,” even if it means “full-scale military confrontation.”

The Nobel Peace Prize has long lost ([link removed]) any credibility ([link removed]) when it comes to upholding actual peace. With Machado’s award, it followed a recent tradition of aligning itself with Western foreign policy. And even more predictable was the corporate media seizing the opportunity to advance its war and regime-change propaganda against Venezuela.
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