Anti-socialist Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said that her decision to gift her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump echoes Venezuelan founding father Simón Bolívar receiving a medal from George Washington’s family in recognition of his independence efforts 200 years ago.

Machado privately met with President Trump at the White House on Thursday where she gifted Trump her Nobel Peace Prize medal. The framed medal bears a plaque signed by Machado that reads, “Presented as a Personal Symbol of Gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan People in Recognition of President Trump’s Principled and Decisive Action to Secure a Free Venezuela.”

“The Courage of America, and its President Donald J. Trump, will Never be Forgotten by the Venezuelan people,” the text concludes.

“It was my Great Honor to meet María Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today. She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María,” President Trump wrote on a Truth Social post.

After the meeting, Machado explained to reporters outside the White House that she recounted to President Trump the history of how Simón Bolívar received a medal bearing George Washington’s likeness from Washington’s family though General Lafayette.

“I told him [Trump] this: 200 years ago, General Lafayette gave Simón Bolívar a medal with George Washington’s face on it. Bolívar since then kept that medal from the rest of his life — actually, when you see his portraits you can see the medal. And it was given by General Lafayette as a sign of the brotherhood between the people of the United States and Venezuela in the fight for freedom against tyranny,” Machado said.

“And 200 years in history, the people of Bolivar are giving back to the heir of Washington a medal, in this case, the medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom,” she continued.

Simón Bolívar is one of the most important figures in Latin American history and Venezuela’s founding father, nicknamed “The Liberator” for his important role in the liberation of not just Venezuela, but also Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bolivia — which is named after him — from Spain’s colonial rule over 200 years ago. The Venezuelan currency, the bolívar, is named after him. Numerous statues of the Venezuelan founding father exist in several countries around the world, including the United States.

Numerous historical accounts have explained that Bolívar harbored deep admiration for George Washington, although he never got to meet him in person, as he was 16 years old at the time Washington passed away in 1799. According to historical records, Bolívar traveled to the United States and there confirmed his admiration for General Washington in 1807 four years before Venezuela signed its 1811 Declaration of Independence, traveling from France to Charleston, South Carolina, to begin his tour of part of the United States before returning to Venezuela in that same year.

In 1825, Washington’s adopted son, George Washington Parke Custis, wrote a letter to Bolívar. The Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional recounted in 2024 that Washington’s family commissioned General Lafayette to act as an intermediary between them and Bolívar.

Parke Custis wrote in a letter to Bolívar, as El Nacional detailed in 2024:

Accept, Liberator Simón Bolívar, these offerings, paid tribute to your virtues and the illustrious services you have rendered to your country and to the cause of mankind. May they be preserved in the archives of South American freedom… We salute you as Bolívar the Liberator, the Washington of the South.

The letter was accompanied with a medallion bearing a portrait of Washington that, on the back, bears an inscription in Latin that roughly translates to, “The son of America’s author of liberty in the North presents this image to the Father of his Country, adopted by him who achieved similar glory in the South.” Additionally, a lock of Washington’s hair was enclosed in the missive, a common gift practice at the time.

General Lafayette, who maintained frequent communication with the Liberator through correspondence, wrote to him on September 1, 1825:

My religious and filial devotion to the memory of General Washington could not be better appreciated by his family than by honoring me with the commission they have entrusted to me. Satisfied with the likeness of the portrait, I am happy to think that, of all existing men, and even of all those in history, General Bolívar is the only one to whom my paternal friend would have preferred to give this gift… Receive, President Liberator, the tribute of my deep and respectful devotion.

In his writings, El Nacional, reported, General Lafayette stated that “the family of the first American president had ‘kept these items until a second Washington came along who should be their owner.'”

El Nacional detailed that General Lafayette had arrived to Colombia on September 1825 to deliver the medallion and the letters — but Bolívar was at the time in Peru. As Lafayette was scheduled to depart to Europe at the time, he entrusted the two letters and the the medallion to Colombian diplomat José María Salazar, who then forwarded them to its intended recipient alongside a letter of his own.

Bolívar replied to Lafayette with a letter dated in Lima, March 20, 1826, which read:

I have had the honor of seeing for the first time the noble characters of that benevolent hand of the New World. I owe this honor to Colonel Mercier, who delivered your esteemed letter of September 1, 1825. There are no words to explain the value this gift has in my heart and your considerations, which are so glorious to me. The Washington family honors me beyond my wildest dreams, because Washington introduced by Lafayette is the crown of all human rewards. He was the noble protector of social reforms, and you are the citizen hero, the athlete of liberty who, with one hand, served America, and with the other, the old continent. Ah, what mortal would be worthy of the honors that you and Mount Vernon deign to bestow upon me! My confusion is equal to the immensity of the gratitude I offer you, along with the respect and veneration that every man owes to the Nestor of liberty.

The Venezuelan founding father would then express his gratitude to George Washington Parke Custis on May 25, 1826 in a letter that read:

Today I have touched this priceless gift with my own hands. The image of the first benefactor of Columbus’ continent, presented by the heroic citizen General Lafayette and offered by the noble scion of that immortal family, was all that could reward the most illustrious merit of the first man in the universe. Am I worthy of such glory? No, but I accept it with joy and gratitude that will reach, together with the venerable remains of the father of America, the most remote generations of my homeland. They must be the last to remain of the New World. Please accept, sir, the most sincere and respectful expressions of my highest consideration. Bolívar.

Since then, as Machado recounted to President Trump, Bolívar wore the medallion that would appear in portraits of the Venezuelan founding father — including the portrait of Bolívar used in pre-1998 versions of Venezuela’s 10 bolivars banknotes.

The George Washington medallion, which contains strands of Washington’s hair, is housed in the museum of the Central Bank of Venezuela.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.