Venezuela closes Norway embassy after Machado awarded Nobel Peace Prize

[Jose Garcia]

Source: Le Monde

Norway's foreign ministry on Monday said Venezuela had closed its embassy in Oslo, without giving a reason, days after opposition leader Maria 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," foreign ministry spokeswoman Cecilie Roang told AFP in an email. "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 added.

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.

This announcement 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

Read more: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/10/13/venezuela-closes-norway-embassy-after-machado-awarded-nobel-peace-prize_6746393_4.html#

[BOSSHOG]

1. I am closing my offices in Los Angeles

Because the Dodgers beat the Phillies.

[Blues Heron]

2. Don't tell Krasnov the child rapist, he'll close the one in DC too

[Ocelot II]

4. I'm a bit surprised he hasn't already.

He made a snide remark about Norway at the press conference, though. https://www.nrk.no/video/trump-etterlyste-norge-paa-scenen--hva-skjedde_5da99596-fb86-44c9-ab3a-acad6654d7b0

[Blues Heron]

5. You know he wants to!

[fujiyamasan]

12. Maybe he's ok because the woman that won said good things about Trump

He can claim he won anyways,

[patphil]

3. I'm sure Norway is all broke up about this.

[rubbersole]

6. Laughing at tsf along with the European leaders.

[Turbineguy]

7. How trump-like.

[Cirsium]

8. As they should

Machado has praised Trump for the extrajudicial murder of Venezuelan citizens, participated in an insurrection, has called or foreign military intervention into her country, and advocates a extreme right wing agenda that includes privatizing everything and turning over the country's resources to US corporations.

[Farmer-Rick]

10. Yup, she is as nasty as pedo Trump

Minus the pedo part......I think.

Though her language skills are much better.

[Cirsium]

13. Those Nobel Prizes

The Peace prize and the Economics prize have always been suspect. The first is chosen by Norwegian politicians, including the right wingers, and the second is chosen by bankers.

[Farmer-Rick]

15. Hmmm, thanks for the info

When they awarded the economic prize to Milton Friedman, I knew the jig was up.

[Ocelot II]

23. Norway's "right-wing" politicians would be considered moderate Democrats in the US.

Nobel's will specifies that the committee should be chosen so it has a balance of political viewpoints. Some of the members have been MPs at one time but their rules specify that none can be current office-holders. Would you consider the previous awards to Obama, Desmond Tutu, Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Doctors Without Borders to be "suspect" as well?

[JI7]

18. The current government has destroyed the lives of people

and forced so many to leave the country in order to survive.

They aren't doing this out of concern for any people.

[Cirsium]

21. That may be

That may be true, but no matter what a socialist government, a government representing the indigenous people, was like in Latin America there would be full-throated nonstop propaganda ad sabre rattling against it. No matter how bad the current government might be in your view, a fascist Pinochet style "solution" is not something we should support, nor should we support turning over the country's resources to US corporations.

The problem with "better dead than red" is that the right wingers are busy categorizing all of us as red i we dare oppose them. The "dead" in that scenario would be us. Get it?

[JI7]

29. Over 30 percent of the people of Venezuela have left

the country since this shit government has been there.

People aren't doing that in the US even though things have gotten bad under Trump.

[Cirsium]

37. So?

What does that have to do with supporting an extreme right winger?

There is a global refugee crisis. The sanctions imposed on Venezuela are an important factor in the refugee crisis there.

This has long been the US approach in Latin America. Create a crisis which then is used to justify the installation of dictatorial right wing police states. The same playbook is being applied to us here now, by the way.

[JI7]

42. So the government sucks and has made people's lives misersble

[Ocelot II]

24. You're a fan of Maduro, then?

Left-wing despots are still despots. Authoritarian brings nominal ideology full-circle.

[Cirsium]

25. OK

So if what you are saying were true, and that is a big if, then why would replacing a left wing despot with a right wing despot be a good idea?

A "fan" of Maduro? What does that even mean?

[Ocelot II]

27. Machado isn't a despot or anything close.

Her receipt of the peace prize was hailed by long-standing Trump critic and frequent MSNBC guest Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/10/maria-machado-nobel-peace-prize/684510/ Machado was awarded the 2024 Václav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Council of Europe, and the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament. The Sakharov Prize is "an honorary award for individuals or groups who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom of thought." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakharov_Prize Other recipients of the Sakharov Prize include Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan, Reporters Without Borders, Malala Yousafzai, Alexei Navalny and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Seems to me she's in pretty good and definitely non-despotic company.

[Cirsium]

30. Not yet

She is an extreme right wing politician. These various resources help balance the picture, which is all I am trying to do here.

There is a long and brutal history of US support for extreme right wing politicians in Latin America. The result has been tyranny, over and over again. Machado is most definitely in that mold. She has been openly praising Trump's murders, calling foreign (US) military intervention, calling or the privatization of the country's resources and ceding of control over them to US corporations. That is exactly the pattern that has been repeated in Latin America many, many times. It is the Milton Friedman/Henry Kissinger plan as applied to Chile, and it led to Pinochet. That plan has always led to police state tyranny.

Machado was the main Venezuelan opposition figure backed by the US. Her platform of extreme neoliberal shock therapy was rejected by the electorate. Most Venezuelans oppose her call to privatize nearly all state institutions serving the people – schools, hospitals, public housing, food assistance, and the state oil company, which funds social programs. Nor is there any popular appetite for Machado’s plan to radically reorient foreign policy to subordination to Washington and support of US imperial wars in Ukraine and Palestine.

Democracy? Hardly. Her claim to be a major candidate was premised on a rigged election process.

Turkewitz reported that Machado won “an overwhelming victory in a primary race.” She uses the weasel-construction “a primary” rather than “the primary,” because Machado’s “primary” was not one conducted by the official Venezuelan electoral authority, the CNE. Rather, it was a private affair administered by the NGO Súmate. That NGO, as the article admits, is funded by the US. Machado prevailed in a crowded field of 13 candidates with a miraculous 92% of the vote. When some of the other candidates called fraud, Machado had the ballots destroyed. She could do so because Súmate is her personal organization.

She is a puppet for the right wing in the US, the latest in a long line of politicians in Latin America wiling to betray their country for the sake of currying favor with US corporate interests, for money and power .

There were a number of more moderate opposition figures with experience and popular followings. Had the US been interested in simply an electoral defeat of the ruling Socialist Party, they could have backed a less extreme candidate and offered to ease their punishing “sanctions” on Venezuela. Instead, Washington backed the far right, which took the supremely unpopular position of advocating for yet more sanctions on their own country to precipitate regime-change.

https://dissidentvoice.org/2024/11/us-backed-venezuelan-opposition-never-tried-to-win-the-presidency/

She dedicates her Nobel prize to Donald Trump, so it is absurd to have people here celebrating her selection because Trump didn't win it. Do we praise Vance because "at least he isn't Trump?"

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado rang in her Nobel Peace Prize victory Friday by dedicating the award to the people of Venezuela fighting for freedom — and President Donald Trump, who has publicly lobbied for the prize for himself

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/10/maria-corina-machado-trump-nobel-prize-dedication-00601967

Anti-authoritarian? No. She is the Venezuelan Trump.

Shortly after the announcement, Machado publicly addressed President Donald Trump. She wrote, "Hoy más que nunca contamos con el Presidente de los EEUU" ("Today more than ever we count on the President of the USA&quot , signaling that she expects U.S. support for her cause. She also asserted that Venezuela is "on the threshold of victory" in its struggle for freedom.

https://www.latintimes.com/venezuelan-leader-mari-corina-machado-mentions-trump-her-first-words-after-winning-nobel-peace-590372

She is a close ally of our worst political opponents.

María Corina Machado’s connections with the Republican Party date back almost two decades, when, in 2002, she was received in Washington DC by the then president of the United States, George W. Bush, with whom she had a meeting at the White House.

The Republican link has become more explicit since the United States launched the political strategy of economic and financial aggression against Venezuela through illegal sanctions, which was followed by an international campaign that tried to present the situation in Venezuela as a "humanitarian emergency" to justify different mechanisms of foreign interference.

María Corina Machado acted as the ideological and political vanguard of the initiatives that Republican Senator Marco Rubio and associated personalities were carrying out, such as the sanctions and other "humanitarian intervention" agendas.

https://misionverdad.com/english/venezuela-opposition-politician-maria-corina-machados-ties-florida-republicans-and-bolivar

Another Pinochet?

María Corina Machado, the leading figure in the far-right sector of the Venezuelan opposition, has revealed details about her private intervention before the Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA): a strategy she has dubbed “The Trillion-Dollar Opportunity.”

AS/COA is a New York-based non-governmental organization founded in 1965 by billionaire David Rockefeller and consisting of two bodies. The first, the Americas Society, is a forum for discussion on policy within the inter-American system. Its second component, the Council of the Americas, brings together international business groups promoting neoliberal policies in the Western Hemisphere.

Machado’s offer of millions of hectares of the country for the benefit of foreign companies suggests another avenue of privatization, since such a vast territory encompasses agricultural land in the hands of the state but also vast amounts of land under conventional private ownership and some 14 million hectares handed over to families and peasant organizations over more than 20 years, under the country’s existing land allocation models.

The figure of 30 million “undeveloped” hectares is extremely striking because it declares the country’s fertile territory as idle land, precisely when Venezuela has achieved 97% of its food supply thanks to domestic production. In this way, Machado distorts reality by making a deceptive offer to US capital and puts the country’s agricultural lands, which already have owners and tenants, up for sale.

https://orinocotribune.com/maria-corina-machado-offers-to-sell-off-venezuela-for-a-billion-dollars/

She loves Trump.

Machado had heaped praise on Trump earlier this year — thanking the POTUS for his “firm commitment to freedom and democracy in Venezuela”. The comments came soon after the US President decided to end the license for American energy giant Chevron to operate in the other country. She had also received a ringing endorsement from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio after being listed in the ‘100 most influential people’ list by TIME Magazine this year.

https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/when-nobel-peace-prize-winner-mara-corina-machado-praised-trump-and-rubio-hailed-her-patriotism/4005848/

Trump, Bolsanaro, Milei, Abascal and Machado: birds of a fascist feather

Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, the former right-wing presidents of the US and Brazil, congratulated La Libertad Avanza (LLA) candidate Javier Milei for winning Argentina’s presidential elections on Sunday.

“Congratulations to Javier Milei on a great race for President of Argentina. The whole world was watching! I am very proud of you. You will turn your Country around and truly Make Argentina Great Again!” posted Trump on his Truth Social account.

Santiago Abascal, leader of Spanish far-right party Vox also congratulated Milei on social media. “Congratulations, dear Milei on your great victory in the Argentine presidential elections,” he said. “A path of future and hope is opening up for the Argentineans and for Ibero-America, which we celebrate in Spain with a special joy. Long live Spain, long live Argentina, live free of socialism and sovereigns!”

María Corina Machado, the opposition leader in Venezuela, also celebrated on X. “Congratulations to all Argentines for an exemplary electoral project and their president-elect, Javier Milei. The fight for change and freedom moves forward in Latin America. Long live Argentina, long live free Venezuela!”

https://buenosairesherald.com/politics/elections/trump-bolsonaro-and-voxs-abascal-congratulate-javier-milei

[Ocelot II]

33. I guess if you're an old-school Marxist-Leninist like Roger D. Harris,

what's "right wing" might depend on where your own wing is. I'm not casting aspersions; Harris is, among other things, a writer for Marxist-Leninism Today. https://mltoday.com/author/rharris/ So can we assume he's a Maduro supporter?

[Cirsium]

38. There we go

That didn't take long. "Are you now or have you ever been..."

Attempting to discredit any and all critics of Machado as Marxists is right wing nonsense. That is what you are doing. So one of the critics has written for a Marxist publication. You should know better. That is currently being used against all of us right here in the US, by the way.

Do you doubt that Trump, Bolsanaro, Milei, and Abascal are right wingers? Do you doubt that Machado aligns with them?

[Ocelot II]

39. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it; just noting where his perspective comes from.

Personally, I don't believe there's any such thing as a real Marxist/Leninist any more so I don't worry much about them.

[Cirsium]

40. Huh?

If there is no such thing, then how can that be "where his perspective comes from?" You singled out that one author. Why?

[Ocelot II]

41. I didn't single him out; I commented on him only because he was the first on your list

of sources. While I don't have the time or the inclination to analyze every one of those sources, as far as I can tell his position is consistent with the other cited sources. I'm not arguing the merits of any ideology, just noting perspective. My essential point is simply that there do seem to be quite a lot of well-regarded people and organizations who do not consider Machado as extreme or favoring despotism. Obviously YMMV.

[nycbos]

9. We've made some progress here

I remember when the regime in Venezuela had a huge fan club here.

[hueymahl]

11. One of our Achilles heels

Believing that communism will someday work, if it is just done the right way!

[nycbos]

14. Yup

The fact that people still think that, despite all the times it's been tried and tens of millions of dead as a result, is mind-boggling. Churchill said "democracy is the worst form of government except for every other form of government." I feel capitalism is similar.

[Farmer-Rick]

17. Democracy always gets destroyed by capitalism

Capitalism is top down rule. Democracy is about every person having an equal say in our government. The 2 are incompatible.

You can't have a filthy rich person ordering his huge mass of workers around and expect democracy to magically take hold. Those workers only know a boss, a dictator, a king CEO. That's why so many people in the US voted away their democracy. They voted for an idiot who told them he would be a dictator.

They don't know what democracy is. Their everyday life is filled with doing what they are told; being ordered around by a better paid person.

You need more democracy in the economy. Not more capitalism.

[Farmer-Rick]

31. That's just weird word play

It's just thrown around to make it sound as if we don't have a democracy......so no problem if a dictator is put in charge..... right?

Yes it IS a Representative Democracy but that IS a type of democracy, only with Representatives.

Here is the evolution of the terms democracy and republic. In case you want to call our once thriving federal government a Republic which is the word play most people who support pedo Trump use.

"Democracy and republic both refer to government in which supreme power resides in its citizens. This was the important distinction at the time of the founding of the United States, as such a government is in direct contrast with monarchy, in which supreme power belongs to the king or queen alone. In part because that context was clear to everyone involved in the American Revolution, democracy and republic were used interchangeably in the late 1700s. Both words meant that the power to govern was held by the people rather than a monarch, as in England."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/democracy-and-republic

But we no longer have any type of democracy, representative or not. The supreme power belongs to pedo Trump.

[Farmer-Rick]

16. Communism has never been tried

The Soviet Union and the current Chinese regime called themselves socialist (even Venezuela calls themselves socialist.) and were, even by their own admission, not fully implemented.

We in the US called them Communist as an insult and to misrepresent their attempt at a more functional and worker oriented economic system.

But honestly who wants Communism? What we want and need is socialism. Combined with democracy it is much more stable than capitalism ever was. Capitalism always destroys democracy. Just look at the US.

[EX500rider]

22. The Soviet Union was certainly communist as they owned everything not just the means of production

Same with early communist China and North Korea all economic basket cases and huge abusers of Human Rights.

The old no true Scotsman Gambit huh?

[Farmer-Rick]

34. There was private property in the old USSR

For example you could own your own home under the USSR. There were also collectives that owned property the members could use and sell. But true, some property was owned by the state but not all property was. Therefore not a true communist country. The USSR never called itself a Communist country. It called itself a Socialist country.

China has always allowed some amount of private property. It frames its ideology as Marxism–Leninism adapted to the historical context of China, often expressing it as socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Yeah, words have meanings. And socialism is different from communism. These are words normally used to describe the prevailing type of economy a country has. But it does not describe the type of government it has.

So there can be dictators, democracies, feudalism and oligarchies in socialist, capitalist, slavery, traditional and communist countries. These all have meanings and should be used properly.

[EX500rider]

32. "True Communism" is never going to happen on a large scale, to unwieldy

The Marx envisioned stateless, classless society where the means of production are collectively owned and controlled directly by the workers does not scale up much beyond a village, a country the size of Russia/China can't have everybody stop to vote on everything, nothing would ever get done.

[Farmer-Rick]

35. You maybe correct

Let's face it no country is 100% any type of economy. Socialism is almost always mixed into some extent. Those are the features pedo Trump is trying to crush in the US.

[Miguelito Loveless]

19. I thought Sweden had the Nobel Committee

Did I miss something?

[Ocelot II]

20. Norway does the Peace Prize; Sweden does all the others.

It's always been that way; I don't know why.

[Miguelito Loveless]

28. Learn something new every day