Venezuela closes embassy in Norway after Nobel for opposition leader
Venezuela announced Monday that it would close its embassy in Oslo, just days after opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Venezuelan government did not comment on Machado’s award in a statement and said the closure was part of a restructuring in the foreign service.
Norway’s foreign ministry confirmed that Caracas had closed its embassy in Oslo without giving any reason.
The Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded her the prize on Friday for her “tireless work defending the democratic rights of the Venezuelan people”, while Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro referred to the 58-year-old laureate as an “evil witch”.
Norway’s foreign ministry described the decision as “regrettable”.
A ministry spokesman said: “Despite our differences on many issues, Norway wants to keep the dialogue open with Venezuela and will continue to work in this direction.” he said.
He added that the Nobel Prize is “independent of the Norwegian government.”
For years, Machado has been campaigning against Maduro, whose 12-year rule is seen as illegitimate by many countries.
While Caracas also closed its embassy in Australia, it opened new police stations in Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso, describing them as “strategic partners in the struggle” against “hegemonic pressures”.
He had to live in hiding for most of the past year.
Honoring his achievement, Nobel president Jørgen Watne Frydnes called Machado “an important, unifying figure in a once deeply divided political opposition in a brutal authoritarian state that is now suffering from a humanitarian and economic crisis.”
Machado told BBC Mundo that his award was “like a shot in the arm” for his political movement. “It instills energy, hope and strength in the Venezuelan people because we realize that we are not alone,” he said.
Venezuela’s closure of its embassies in two close US allies comes after weeks of rising tensions between Caracas and Washington.
The US military has destroyed at least four boats it said were carrying drugs from Venezuela to the US, killing at least 21 people on board, in what the Donald Trump administration has called the war on drugs.
While the strikes were condemned in countries such as Venezuela and Colombia, some international lawyers described the strikes as a violation of international law.
The last time Norway suffered a diplomatic blow over the Nobel Peace Prize was with China in 2010, when the prize was awarded to political dissident Liu Xiaobo. Beijing suspended trade and other relations and normalized relations with Oslo only six years later.
