Cair calls on Nobel Prize winner to renounce support for far-right, racist and fascist parties

An American civil rights group on Friday called on the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize winner to renounce her support for Zionism and fascism, including over her links to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party and right-wing groups in Europe.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) said that they “strongly disagree” with the Nobel Prize committee’s decision to award the prize to Maria Corina Machado, who they said “delivered remarks at a conference of European fascists, including Geert Wilders and Marie Le Pen, which openly called for a new Reconquista, referencing the ethnic cleansing of Spanish Muslims and Jews in the 1500s”.

They said that if she failed to do so, they urged the Nobel Prize committee to “reconsider” its decision, saying that it had “undermined their own reputation” by selecting her.

“An anti-Muslim bigot and supporter of European fascism would have no place being mentioned alongside the likes of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and other worthy winners of the Nobel Peace Prize,” Cair said in a statement.

“The Nobel Peace Prize should go to individuals who have shown moral consistency by bravely advocating justice for all people, not to politicians who demand democracy in their own nation while supporting racism, bigotry and fascism abroad,” they added. 

Machado supports Netanyahu’s Likud Party and wrote him a letter in 2018, asking him to help overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

Machado signed off on a formal “alliance” between her political party and the Likud Party in 2020. The same year, she told Israeli media she would move the Venezuelan embassy to Jerusalem if she came into power.

She has also declared, “The struggle of Venezuela is the struggle of Israel.”

In February, Machado delivered virtual remarks at the far-right Patriots of Europe conference in Madrid, where speakers included anti-Muslim advocates Wilders, Le Pen and Viktor Orban.

A report by Reuters said that the speakers “railed against immigration and most called for a new ‘Reconquista'," a reference to Christians re-conquering Muslim parts of Spain and Portugal.

On Friday, Machado dedicated the prize to US President Donald Trump and the people of Venezuela, saying, “I dedicate this prize to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause”.

Trump has sent warships off the coast of Venezuela, targeting drug cartels.