President Trump appears to have stuck America’s mighty finger into the “criminal hub of the Americas.”

Legacy media certainly appear eager to make President Trump the boogeyman in his clampdown on Venezuela’s nefarious regime – questioning his action against narco-terrorist boats and the seizure of an infamous black market oil tanker off its coast.

Yet, the country’s opposition leader, Nobel laureate Maria Corina Machado, is having none of the American media’s angst – and is not only vigorously endorsing Trump’s bold intervention, but is doing so with gratitude.

“I absolutely support President Trump’s strategy,” Machado told CBS Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan from Norway Sunday, “and we the Venezuelan people are very grateful to him and to his administration because I believe he is the champion of freedom in this hemisphere.

“And that’s why, and I say this from Oslo right now, I have dedicated this award to him because I think that he finally has put Venezuela where it should be in terms of a priority for the United States’ national security.”

“But would you welcome U.S. military action?” pushed Brennan, appearing incredulous.

“I will welcome more and more pressure so Maduro understands that he has to go, that his time is over,” Machado replied forthrightly.

“This is not conventional regime change. This cannot be compared to other cases like countries in the Middle East. We had an election; regime change was already mandated by over 70% of the population. What we need is … to enforce that decision.”

Another recent inquirer also asked Machado whether she’d welcome a U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.

“Look, some people talk about ‘invasion’ in Venezuela, the threat of an invasion in Venezuela,” she said, “and I answer: Venezuela has been already invaded. We have the Russian agents, we have the Iranian agents. We have terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas operating freely in accordance with the regime. We have the Colombian guerillas, the drug cartels that have taken over 60% of our populations – not only involved in drug trafficking, but in human trafficking, in networks of prostitution. 

“So, this has turned Venezuela into the criminal hub of the Americas. 

“And what [has] sustained the regime is a very powerful, and strongly funded, repression system. Where [do those] funds come from? Well, from drug trafficking, from the black market of oil, from arms trafficking, [from] human trafficking. We need to cut those flows. 

“And once it happens and repression is weakened, it’s over – because that’s the only thing the regime has left: violence and terror. 

“So, we ask the international community to cut those sources, because the other regimes that support Maduro and the criminal structure are very active and have turned Venezuela into the safe haven for their operations into the rest of Latin America.”

Still, Brennan pressed, “But how do you square military action with receiving a Peace Prize? Are we at the point it’s necessary?”

Machado proceeded to school the American anchor on the relationship between peace and freedom.

“What we’re fighting for is precisely freedom in order to have democracy, and democracy in order to have peace. And in order to maintain freedom and to achieve freedom, you do need strength.”