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Venezuelan president condemns new U.S. sanctions against government officials

Xinhua, February 3, 2015 Adjust font size:

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Monday condemned the new visa sanctions imposed earlier in the day by the U.S. Congress on Venezuelan officials and their families.

"This is bizarre. What right does the U.S. government think it have to impose an imperial law on our sovereign nation?" the president said at a meeting of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

He said that these new measures came just a few days after he denounced that U.S. Vice President Joe Biden were heading a coup plan along with other government agencies to topple him.

Maduro noted that Washington should worry about its "domestic violation of human rights" as he referred to recent cases of police shootings against young African-Americans and alleged terrorists incarcerated in Guantanamo who have suffered tortures over the last few years.

"It's an arrogant imperial power that tries to bring down our government with sanctions, but we're a step ahead on this battle for our independence" , he added.

He also criticized Venezuelan opposition representatives in the U.S. for constantly pressing on lawmakers and government officials to declare his government as a "narco-state" .

"They want the U.S. to have a new policy towards Venezuela and treat us like a country that lives on drug trafficking. I call upon all revolutionary forces to defend our sovereignty, with justice and truth," said the president.

Washington imposed visa restrictions Monday on officials involved in alleged human rights abuses and those believed responsible for public corruption in the oil-exporting country.

Earlier in the day, prior to knowing about the new sanctions, Maduro said that he will write a letter to Obama because he "perceives" that the U.S. head of state doesn't dictate directly his administration's policies towards Venezuela.

"U.S. policy towards Venezuela has been kidnapped by irresponsible imperial factors that are leading Washington to a dead end in its relations with us and Latin America in general," he stated.

Maduro said this new "behavior" by the White House will lead to another failure "just as it did with Cuba," referring to Washington's major shift on policies towards Havana in December. Endi