Business are business: Trump’s tariffs against Switzerland complicate María Corina Machado

Marcos Salgado

The billionaire U.S. President Donald Trump has imposed a 39% tariff on imports of Swiss products, effective since Thursday, August 7, 2025. It is the highest rate applied to developed countries and nearly quadruples the tariffs negotiated with the European Union (15%) or the United Kingdom (10%).

Switzerland is in charge of representing the United States in Venezuela under the diplomatic mechanism known as a “protecting power mandate,” activated after the breakdown of official relations between the United States and Venezuela following the first Trump administration’s open backing of the 2019 border incursion attempt.

This means that, with the consent of the Venezuelan government, the Swiss Embassy in Caracas can handle certain consular services and represent U.S. interests in the country. The measure does not include full diplomatic representation, but it operates as a sort of symbolic protection.

Representation at risk

The investigative journalism platform La Tabla published an interesting article on the matter, outlining the limits of Swiss representation and noting the jolt in Swiss–U.S. relations caused by Trump’s steep tariffs. “The paradox is evident: Switzerland is trying to mediate in Venezuela while its relationship with the U.S. is fracturing,” warns La Tabla.

Over the past week, Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the White House. With the very high tariffs now in effect, the Swiss Federal Council expressed “great regret” over the U.S. decision. It explicitly stated that the additional, unilateral, and high tariffs harm the Swiss economy and make it difficult to maintain a relationship of trust between the two countries.

Machado, in trouble

This unprecedented impasse between Bern and Washington finds opposition figure María Corina Machado in a luxury apartment in the former U.S. Embassy in Caracas, closed since 2019 and under Swiss representation pursuant to the current diplomatic mandate.

Machado’s whereabouts were confirmed on Friday to Venezuelan media by official sources. “The far-right leader María Corina Machado is hiding in a luxury apartment in the former headquarters of the United States Embassy in Caracas,” reads the portal LaIguana.tv. Information that was not denied by MCM and her circle.

“From that location Machado directs multiple terrorist actions against Venezuela,” such as the thwarted explosive operation in Plaza Venezuela denounced Thursday by the Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, says La Iguana.

Bomb in Plaza Venezuela

The day before this revelation, Minister Cabello presented at a press conference evidence of an attempted attack the previous weekend. He confirmed that 13 people have been arrested. One of them revealed how he was recruited to place more than two kilograms of C4 explosives next to the new monument honoring Soviet heroes who fought fascism in World War II.

The monument includes a gas line to feed an eternal flame. Specialists say that if the device had detonated in combination with the gas, the explosion could have caused dozens of casualties. The place, especially on Sunday afternoons, is packed with families, with children riding bicycles and skating.

Cabello pointed to Machado as the “leader” of these actions, accusing her of being part of a clandestine structure to destabilize the country. “Only someone with mental problems calls for violence, war, and terrorism in the country for destabilizing purposes, expecting the national government to stand idly by.”

Reward

To round out the picture, this same week the United States doubled the reward for reliable information to locate the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. So ridiculous. Not without reason, many joked on social media by “revealing” the Venezuelan leader’s location: the Miraflores Palace.

Even so, it is no less true that the insistence on labeling Maduro a drug trafficker is vital fuel for Machado, Marco Rubio’s State Department, and their affiliated media. Given the complete failure of Machado’s internal destabilization strategy, only “international pressure” remains. But not to bring down Maduro—just to stay afloat.

Venezuelan journalist Clodovaldo Hernández argues that the failure of the abstentionist and maximum-pressure strategy, together with the emergence of a new crop of opposition leaders, “sharpens the plans of the maricorinista faction.” He recalls that a beast is never as dangerous as when it is cornered.

In this scenario, it does not seem far-fetched that a backlash from the Swiss–U.S. crisis could change the rules of the game around the vast compound in Colinas de Valle Arriba and its furtive tenant. Last hours of “clandestinity” for MCM?