Pope receives Venezuelan opposition leader Machado

Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado on Monday, the Vatican announced. No further details about the content of the conversation were immediately released, and the meeting only appeared in the list of the Pope's Monday working meetings in the daily Vatican bulletin.

Leo XIV, the first pope from the US, has spoken out several times in recent days about the tense situation in Venezuela after US forces detained President Nicolás Maduro on the orders of President Donald Trump.

The Pope called for Venezuela to remain an independent country and for the rights and will of its people to be respected.

(reuters, lud)