NORWAY CONCERNED BUT PASSIVE ON VENEZUELA

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 001125 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/23/2017 TAGS: PREL VE PHUM WHA NO SUBJECT: NORWAY CONCERNED BUT PASSIVE ON VENEZUELA REF: A. STATE 157206 ¶B. OSLO 01102 Classified By: DCM Kevin M. Johnson for reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (C) In response to Ref A demarche, Latin America Section Head Herberth Linder stated that Norway will sign on to any joint declaration that the EU produces on the situation in Venezuela (noting that the UK is putting language together but that they had not yet been approached on it officially), but that it is unwilling to take any further official action. Linder stressed that the process has so far been a democratic one, although the Norwegian government is very concerned that the 'political system is committing suicide'. The opposition, he stated, has not 'shot itself in the foot, but in the head'. Linder noted public comments by FM Jonas Gahr Stoere that Norway is very concerned about the threat to free expression and media freedom in Venezuela. This expression of concern will be the limit of the GON's reaction to the current situation in Venezuela absent a clear violation of the constitutional process. As noted in Ref B, Norway is not sending a representative to the Community of Democracies Ministerial and does not consider this organization influential. ¶2. (C) Venezuela desk officer Ingunn Nakkim and Linder both have been monitoring the dissenting voices in Venezuela and noted that Norway is quietly working with NGOs in the country to monitor press freedom. They stated that the NGO Sumate from Ref A is considered by their sources in Venezuela to be CIA run, or at the very least, tainted by US involvement. ¶3. (C) COMMENT: Norway's center-left coalition government is reluctant to criticize Cuba and Venezuela. Development Minister Erik Solheim (recently also named Environment Minister) and his Socialist Left party seek to expand GON contact with, and support for, socialist governments in Latin America. Norway will be opening a new embassy in La Paz, and in early November Solheim was in Bolivia where he signed an agreement for tighter cooperation between Norway and Bolivia in the oil and gas sector. WHITNEY