Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Embarrassed with its hiding Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado being declared the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2025, and then she dedicating it to US President Donald Trump, who ‘lost’ it, Venezuela on Tuesday said it would close its embassy at Oslo, Norway.
Interestingly, Trump had not only campaigned for himself as a potential winner, he also got countries like Pakistan and Israel nominate him. He had even telephoned a Norwegian minister in this regard.
The media quoted a Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson as saying that the Venezuelan embassy in Oslo 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 a body independent from the Norwegian government.
An Israel-supporter, Corina Machado, who has been in hiding since 2024, was declared the Nobel Peace Prize winner on Friday last week 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 US President Donald Trump and the “suffering people of Venezuela.”
Nearly bankrupt, facing high inflation, and other crises, Venezuela has also decided to shutter its embassy in Australia also.
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 2025 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.