Venezuela's Machado asks Pope Leo to press for release of prisoners

By Joshua McElwee

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado met Pope Leo at the Vatican on Monday and said afterwards that she had asked the pontiff to press Caracas to release political prisoners.

The Vatican confirmed the meeting in its daily press release on Monday, but did not offer comment or further details about the encounter.

In a brief video clip released by the Vatican, the two were seen shaking hands and smiling as they sat across from each other at the pope's desk in his official office in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

Machado, the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize winner, said in a statement that she asked Leo "to intercede for all Venezuelans who remain kidnapped and disappeared."

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.

Venezuela's government said on Monday that 116 prisoners had been released, although rights groups reported a lower figure.

The release of hundreds of political prisoners in the South American country is a long-running demand of human rights groups, international bodies and opposition figures.

Machado, a former National Assembly member, has been one of the leading voices calling for prisoner releases. She was barred from running in Venezuela’s 2024 general election by authorities aligned with Maduro.

She backed a stand‑in candidate who was widely considered to have won the vote, although Maduro claimed victory. Ballot audits by independent observers showed irregularities in the official results.