Pope Leo XIV meets with Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado in a surprise audience

Pope Leo XIV met with Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado in a private audience at the Vatican on Monday. Machado is touring Europe and the United States after she reemerged in December to accept her Nobel Peace Prize in Norway. Pope Leo, the first American pontiff, has called for Venezuela to remain an independent country after U.S. forces captured former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his compound in Caracas and flew him to New York to face federal charges of drug-trafficking.