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‘Stunned’: Worries leave thousands in Australia after Venezuela’s surprise move
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‘Stunned’: Worries leave thousands in Australia after Venezuela’s surprise move

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The Venezuelan government has announced it will close its embassies in Australia and Norway as part of a restructuring of its foreign service, as tensions between the South American country and the United States escalate.
The closures are part of the “strategic reallocation of resources,” the government of President Nicolás Maduro said in a statement on Monday.
The Venezuelan government said consular services to Venezuelans in Norway and Australia will be provided by diplomatic missions, and details will be shared in the coming days.
Venezuela has also announced it will open new embassies in Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe, which it describes as “two sister countries, strategic allies in the anti-colonial struggle and in resistance to hegemonic pressure.”

Raul Sanchez-Urribarri, associate professor at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University, called Venezuela’s decision to close its embassy in Australia a “strong disappointment” and said he is concerned about the lack of consular services for Venezuelans in Australia.

Sanchez-Urribarri said he first became aware of the news that the embassy would close after a friend approached him asking how he would renew his passport.
“The Venezuelan population in Australia is not very large, but it is still significant,” Sanchez-Urribarri said.
“It is estimated that approximately 10,000 to 15,000 Venezuelans use these services, and because Australia is so far from other locations, there are concerns that it will be difficult for Venezuelans to use these services if they are moved to another location.”
Luis Patino, the vice-president of the Venezuelan Community of South Australia, told SBS News he was not surprised the Venezuelan government chose to close its embassy in Australia as it has changed many aspects of its foreign policy in recent years.
However, Patino – who moved to Australia as a refugee in 2019 – said the change has him concerned about Venezuelans living in Australia.
“As a country, they are leaving all your citizens without permits, passports and other documents they need,” he said.

Patino also said visa applications for Australian citizens wanting to visit their families in Venezuela could be affected.

Why is Venezuela closing its embassy in Australia?

Sanchez-Urribarri said he is “stunned” by Venezuela’s decision to close its embassy in Australia.

He said it may be loosely related to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado winning the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize last week for her “tireless work to promote democratic rights for the people of Venezuela.”

In 2023, Machado won a resounding victory in opposition primaries, and her rallies drew large crowds, but a ban on holding public office prevented the democracy campaigner from running for president against Maduro in 2024, and she went into hiding.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced Friday that Machado was awarded the prize for “her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy.”

Sanchez-Urribarri said the award was an “unforeseen” development but represents a “further dent” in the legitimacy of the Maduro regime.

María Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize last week for her commitment to democracy. Source: MONKEY / Matias Delacroix/AP

“It strengthens the legitimacy and visibility of the claim for redemocratization in Venezuela,” he said.

Posting after her victory over X, Machado dedicated the award “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to [US] President [Donald] Trump for his decisive support of our cause!”
The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize is determined each year by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

It is independent of the Norwegian government, but the Scandinavian country says it has received notice of the closure of the Venezuelan embassy and that there is no reason for the decision.

A spokesman for the Norwegian Foreign Ministry called Venezuela’s decision “regrettable.”
“Despite the fact that we have different positions on different issues, Norway wants to keep the dialogue with Venezuela open and will work towards that,” the spokesperson said.
Sanchez-Urribarri said he believes the Venezuelan government may have decided to lump the Australian embassy closure with the Norwegian embassy closure to give more weight to the announcement.

“Nothing has happened lately [between Australia and Venezuela] which I know would merit such a response. In the case of Norway, I think it is very clear – without any doubt,” he said.

“But in the case of Australia, my main hypothesis at the moment is that this was something that was announced for bombastic effect, but there isn’t really a reason.”

Australia’s relationship with Venezuela

Sanchez-Urribarri said Australia does not currently have a “functional relationship” with Venezuela due to the decline of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism under Maduro, who has been president since 2013.

In 2019, Australia was one of several countries, including the US and the United Kingdom, along with the European Union, that recognized former Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó as the legitimate president until free and fair elections were held.

Many countries said the election was rigged and supported opposition candidate Edmundo González’s claim that he had won, but González fled Venezuela last September and sought asylum in Spain after an arrest warrant was issued for him.

Escalating tensions with the US

Tensions between the US and Venezuela have escalated in recent months as Maduro claims Trump is trying to oust him from power.
Trump has explicitly accused Maduro of running drug cartels and called him one of the “largest drug traffickers in the world,” though he has played down accusations that he is trying to oust the Venezuelan president.
In September, Trump presented Congress with the Major’s List – a list of 23 countries that the US government believes are responsible for purchasing and transporting illegal drugs into the US.
Venezuela was listed as one of five countries that the U.S. said has “demonstrated no substantial efforts” to stop drug trafficking.

The US also recently doubled the bounty for Maduro’s arrest to $50 million.

Carlos Eduardo Morreo, a lecturer at the University of Melbourne and Latin American studies researcher, told SBS News earlier this year that the US government is trying to portray Venezuela as a “narco-terrorist” state.
However, Morreo said there is “no real evidence that Maduro and the government are involved in the shipments or benefit from these shipments, or that the state is directly involved in any of these cases.”
Military tensions between the US and Venezuela have also increased.
The US government has recently carried out fatal military attacks on suspected Venezuelan drug trafficking boats, which some international experts say violate international law.

There has also been a significant US military buildup in the southern Caribbean, with at least seven US warships in the region, along with a nuclear-powered submarine and F-35 stealth fighter jets deployed in Puerto Rico, posing a growing threat to Maduro.

The president has called on citizens to train for a possible U.S. attack, and the president has deployed 25,000 troops along Venezuela’s coastline and border with Colombia.
Sanchez-Urribarri said it is difficult to get a good sense of how Venezuelans are responding to these threats, due to the fear of speaking out under Maduro’s government, but he sees a “strong expectation or fear” in social media comments about what will happen between Venezuela and the US.
“There’s a wide range of views on this – from people who think something will happen soon to others who are in more of a ‘watch and see’ situation.”
SBS News has contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment.
— With additional reporting by Reuters.

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