to the editor: I read a reader's letter to the editor criticizing María Corina Machado for giving her Nobel Peace Prize to President Trump (“Letters to the editor: María Corina Machado degrades the Nobel Prize by giving it to Trump” January 17). I guess it's easy to criticize her from a safe, wealthy city like Pasadena. Machado has not had that luxury, as he had to remain on the move due to political persecution.
In his fight for his country's democracy, Machado realized that he needed help from the United States, and to gain that support, he knew that flattery was the only way to curry favor with our selfish president (ask Russian President Vladimir Putin; he knows that negotiation tactic well).
Machado only had one negotiating tool: his Nobel Prize. Who knows if it was his idea to offer it; they could have pressured her to present it as the only all-access pass to the White House. “Shameworthy”? How about brave and selfless?
It was his last effort for Venezuela, which unfortunately probably won't achieve much. But I think it's unfair to criticize someone when you really have no idea what they've had to endure trying to save their country.
Kendall Wolf, Encino
