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Norway’s foreign ministry has said that Venezuela has closed its embassy in Oslo without giving a reason, days after opposition leader María Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
“We have been informed by the embassy of Venezuela that it is shutting its doors and no reason has been given,” the foreign ministry spokesperson, Cecilie Roang, told AFP.
“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,” she said.
According to the Verdens Gang daily, which revealed the information, the embassy services were no longer answering the phone on Monday afternoon. Its numbers had been disconnected, AFP observed in the evening.
The news comes three days after Machado was awarded the Nobel peace prize in Oslo. She has made the downfall of the Chavista regime in Venezuela her mission.
Machado had been prevented from running in the 2024 presidential election, in which the incumbent, Nicolás Maduro, was declared the winner despite opposition protests.
Machado was honoured “for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy,” said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel committee in Oslo.
On Sunday, Maduro, without mentioning Machado’s prize, referred to the 58-year-old laureate as a “demonic witch”, a term often used by the government.
“We want peace, and we will have peace, but peace with freedom, with sovereignty,” Maduro said at an event commemorating the discovery of the Americas, celebrated in Venezuela as Indigenous Resistance Day.
Machado supports US military manoeuvres in waters near Venezuela. She dedicated her Nobel prize “to the suffering people of Venezuela” and to Trump, who also was nominated for the award.
During an appearance on Saturday on Fox News, Machado hailed Trump.
He “deserves” the award, she said, “because not only has he been involved in resolving eight wars in just a few months, but his actions have been decisive in bringing Venezuela to the threshold of freedom”.
