Maria Corina Machado wins Nobel Peace Prize 2025: The delicious Obama twist in giving the award to Venezuelan - and snubbing Donald Trump

The United States’ modern campaign against Maduro began quietly under Barack Obama. As Venezuela slid deeper into crisis following Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013, Washington’s strategy was one of incremental pressure. In 2015, Obama signed an executive order declaring Venezuela a “national security threat” — a technical step that enabled targeted sanctions against top regime officials accused of corruption and human rights abuses.

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