Stories that caught our eye: December 5 to 12

MILEI IN OSLO

President Javier Milei departed for Oslo on Monday evening to attend the ceremony awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, returning on Thursday morning, with his sister, Presidential Chief-of-Staff Karina Milei as his main company. His brief stay in Oslo also included scheduled Wednesday meetings with King Harald V and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre but these were cancelled, reportedly on the off-chance that a delayed Machado might show up during that time and to “give her space,” said officials. Santiago Peña (Paraguay), Daniel Noboa (Ecuador) and José Raúl Mulino (Panama) were other Latin American presidents to attend the ceremony and meet the Norwegian leaders. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro later rubbished “ridiculous” Milei and “the parasite” Mulino in particular for attending the ceremony. Relations with Venezuela have been tense throughout the Milei Presidency while last Monday marked the anniversary of the arrest in Caracas of Border Guard corporal Nahuel Gallo on espionage charges, a continuing detention which the government defines as a “forced disappearance.” Milei failed to meet Machado, with whom he has held telephone calls in the past, due to her late arrival owing to complications in her travel from exile with her daughter Ana Corina Sosa Machado receiving the prize in her name. Just before heading out to Norway, Milei received another Nobel Prize winner, Robert Merton (81 years young), co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Prize for Economics, at the Olivos presidential residence, clad in YPF overalls.