Venezuela says it will close its embassy in Norway, just days after Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was announced the winner of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo.
A Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the Reuters news agency that the Venezuelan embassy did not give a reason for shutting its doors for its decision on Monday.
“It is regrettable. Despite our differences on several issues, Norway wishes to keep the dialogue open with Venezuela and will continue to work in this direction,” the spokesperson said.
The ministry also stressed that the Nobel Committee overseeing the prize is an independent body from the Norwegian government.
Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since 2024, was declared the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday for her “extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America in recent times”.
She was barred from standing in last year’s election in Venezuela, which was won by President Nicolas Maduro in a widely disputed result.
Corina Machado dedicated her Nobel Prize win to United States President Donald Trump and the “suffering people of Venezuela”.
Venezuela has also decided to shutter its embassy in Australia, in addition to Norway.
Instead, it plans to open two new embassies in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe, countries it described as “strategic allies in the anti-colonial fight and in resistance to hegemonic pressures”.
Neither Norway nor Australia has an embassy in Venezuela, and consular services are handled by their embassies in Colombia.
Both countries are longtime allies of the US, which, under Trump, has launched an official war against Latin American drug cartels like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua.
The US military has since September carried out at least four strikes on boats operated by alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean under orders from the White House.
Maduro has accused Washington of trying to instigate regime change in Venezuela and called for the United Nations Security Council to take action.
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