Protests in Norway against Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado Nobel Peace Prize award

Scores of demonstrators gathered outside the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo Tuesday (9 December) to protest against the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

Participants carried banners reading “Viva Cuba, Viva Venezuela / Imperialism out of Latin America / Revolutionary Communist group rock around the blockade” and “US hands off Latin-Amerika.”

The Information Adviser for the Norwegian Solidarity Committee for Latin America, Lina Alvarez Reyes said the protest was organised in collaboration with a broad alliance of Norwegian peace and solidarity organisations.

She criticised the prize winner for not distancing herself from recent interventions and attacks in the Caribbean.

“This year’s Nobel Prize winner has not distanced herself from the interventions and the attacks we are seeing in the Caribbean, and we are stating that this clearly breaks with Alfred Nobel’s will," Reyes said.

Protesters marched in front of the institute, chanting slogans including “Hands off Venezuela.”

Kristine Mollo-Christensen, Head of Stop NATO, one of the groups participating in the demonstration, said the protest was against awarding the prize to Machado, claiming she had supported U.S. actions outside Venezuela and expressed a positive stance towards intervention in her own country.

The demonstration remained peaceful, with participants filming and documenting the event as they marched past the institute.

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Earlier, the Norwegian Nobel Institute cancelled a planned press conference with Machado, ahead of Wednesday's award ceremony.

Machado, 58, has been subject to a decade-long travel ban imposed by the government of President Nicolas Maduro and has been in hiding for more than a year. The institute said it did not know Machado's current whereabouts.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize to Machado for her fight against what it called a dictatorship.

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She has aligned with hawks close to U.S. President Donald Trump who argue that Maduro has links to criminal gangs that pose a direct threat to U.S. national security, despite doubts raised by the U.S. intelligence community.

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