Venezuela’s authoritarian regime announced on Monday that it is closing its embassy in Norway and shifting diplomatic resources toward the Global South. The country’s foreign ministry framed the move as part of a broad “restructuring” of Venezuela’s foreign service to “optimize state resources and redefine our diplomatic presence,” and said new embassies will open in Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso.
The decision, however, comes three days after opposition leader María Corina Machado received the Nobel Peace Prize Award for, as the committee put it, being “one of the most extraordinary examples of civilian courage in Latin America.”
Caracas said consular services in Norway and Australia will be handled by “concurrent missions.” The ministry’s statement added that the steps reflect a “will to defend national sovereignty and contribute to a new world order.”
President Nicolás Maduro gave the government’s first high-level reaction to the Nobel Prize announcement on Sunday, denouncing Machado in a speech marking Indigenous Resistance Day. Without naming her, he called her “a demonic witch” and asserted that “90% of the population rejects her,”
The diplomatic move also follows accelerated militarization and rhetoric from Caracas. Maduro has ordered militia expansions and staged nationwide drills, saying the measures are needed to “defend sovereignty” amid what he calls U.S. aggression.
Top regime figures have echoed those themes while accusing Washington of seeking regime change. Top official Diosdado Cabello said last week that Venezuelans are “peaceful” but warned that they have been “actively” preparing “in all fronts to resist, for as long as needed, from the attacks that want to be conducted on the country.”
Norwegian officials have not immediately commented on the embassy closure.
Originally published on Latin Times
