So how's Venezuela's dictator, Nicolas Maduro, handling the news that the woman he stole the election from, Maria Corina Machado, has won the Nobel peace prize? He was so quiet these past few days.
He finally crawled out from wherever it was he was, and let's just say it wasn't pretty.
The initial reports say he was trying to repress the news, firing state-media reporters for actually reporting the matter without commentary:
???? | In Venezuela, journalists are being fired simply for reporting that a Venezuelan woman, María Corina, has won the Nobel Peace Prize—without even taking a position on whether it’s good or bad.
— Orlando Avendaño (@OrlvndoA) October 12, 2025
That’s what we’re up against. And that’s precisely why she deserved the award.
Then Maduro showed up in public, making his first appearance since the news, with this load of bile for the winner:
????????????| ÚLTIMA HORA: Totalmente enloquecido el narcotirano terrorista Nicolás Maduro llama “bruja demoniaca y sayona” a María Corina Machado y luego al siguiente aliento pide “paz”. La presión militar tiene loco a Maduro y a todo el Cartel de los Soles. pic.twitter.com/s0QH6EfwV5
— Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) October 12, 2025
#Venezuela : ????el NarcoTirano Nicolás dice que un 90% de la población repudia a la bruja demoníaca de la sayona”, refiriéndose a la líder ganadora del Premio Nobel de la Paz, @MariaCorinaYA
— Tamara Suju (@TAMARA_SUJU) October 13, 2025
El que vive lleno de pulseras y collares hechos por los brujos que le mandan desde Cuba,… https://t.co/LeGdtQBr87
He called her a 'demonic witch' and a 'sayona' (whatever that is, Grok Translate didn't say,) claimed 90% of the Venezuelan public hated him, in what had to be an exact inversion of the numbers.
This Venezuelan did his best to enlighten me:
Sayona: es una mujer que solo molesta a los hombres. Pero este no lo es!
— Gonzalo Espindola (@Gonzalo1yya) October 13, 2025
Grok Translate: Sayona: she is a woman who only bothers men. But this one isn't!
Notice the feather headdress Maduro is wearing in honor of 'Indigenous People's Day. On his corpulent, mustachioed, self, it looks ridiculous.
After that, he shut down the Venezuelan embassy in Norway, wanting to take it out on the whole Norwegian nation for the decision of the Nobel committee:
????ATENCIÓN: La narcotiranía de Nicolás Maduro anuncia el cierre de la embajada de Venezuela en Noruega tras el Premio Nobel de la Paz otorgado a María Corina Machado. pic.twitter.com/pl8iAbWn3v
— Gabriel Bastidas (@Gbastidas) October 13, 2025
????Update: El Presidente Nicolás Maduro announces the closure of its embassy in Norway in retaliation for the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to María Corina Machado, deepening its international isolation! pic.twitter.com/eonT1UCcXG
— US Homeland Security News (@defense_civil25) October 13, 2025
He also is reportedly penning his allies who want to flee in:
Currently, in Venezuela, no jet lifts off without Delcy Rodríguez’s approval. Businesspeople and “persons of interest” are being grounded. No one leaves without the Vice President’s direct approval. They know the boat is sinking and they want everyone to go down with them.
— Francisco Poleo (@FranciscoPoleoR) October 13, 2025
Then he may have gotten ugly, very ugly.
Facts are sketchy, but there is an initial report from the Daily Mail's correspondent that dissidents have now been shot abroad by the drug-lord president's goons.
Absolute HORROR- young Venezuelan activists @LuisPecheVE and @yendrive were shot at more than 10 times in what looks like a hit job in Bogota, where they are exiled. This would be the latest case of Maduro targeting dissidents abroad.
— Germania Rodriguez Poleo (@iamGermania) October 13, 2025
This, too:
???? Two Venezuelan pro-democracy activists have been shot in Bogotá: @LuisPecheVE and @yendrive, both of whom went into exile after the 2024 electoral fraud.
— Caracas Chronicles (@CaracasChron) October 13, 2025
Peche and Velásquez survived the ambush. Both are in stable condition.
Police in ???????? are treating the case as a hit job.
And more may be coming:
????????????| URGENTE: Nicolás Maduro y Diosdado Cabello están mandando a asesinar a sus opositores políticos que están en Colombia. La situación es bastante grave. Acaban de dispararle en Bogotá a Luis Peche y Yendri Velásquez y hay información de que planean más atentados. pic.twitter.com/eUiqzrOP0V
— Eduardo Menoni (@eduardomenoni) October 13, 2025
There is also a report that he is now hiding out in an underground bunker.
There's little doubt this award had been an absolute disaster for him and seems to have concentrated his own mind into thinking this is the end for him. He's acting as though the Mussolini meathook is moving inexorably his way. Whatever it is that gets him out of power, let's hope this award signals the end of his dictatorial power.
Image: X video screen shot