New "psychological war" campaign adds to U.S. threats against Venezuela: Maduro

Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said Tuesday night that a new "psychological war campaign" has been activated to "generate fear and anguish" among the people, an operation that adds to recent "aggressions" from the United States.

In his weekly television program, Maduro said the new "campaign", which includes rumors of widespread violence, shortages and kidnappings, is coordinated in Bogota and Miami by right-wing political advisor JJ Rendon, a fugitive of the Venezuelan justice.

"We have to activate once again the red code of Interpol to bring him here to justice. He is a criminal", said Maduro.

The head of State also accused Spain's former prime minister Felipe Gonzalez of coordinating this "new phase" from Madrid and organizing with Rendon and other political activists in Bogota.

"He has actively started to participate in this campaign against Venezuela, supporting a coup in our nation and earning a very high sum of money in euros," Maduro said.

Gonzalez said earlier this week he would become the defense lawyer and activist of jailed opposition leaders Leopoldo Lopez and Antonio Ledezma, who face trial for conspiracy and leading a "coup attempt" against the Venezuelan president.

Maduro said the goal of this campaign is to utilize widespread rumors to deviate the people's attention from recent U.S. sanctions and President Obama's executive order, which calls Caracas a threat to Washington's national security.

"They want to promote rumors to make the people forget about the imperial attacks against our homeland and once again deepen the economic war by stimulating hoarding, shortages and smuggling of basic products" , he said.

Venezuela suffers from high inflation and shortages of basic goods, for which Maduro's government blame some entrepreneurs and right-wing politicians who he claimed seek to topple him.

Regarding the recent standoff with the United States, Maduro said the U.S. has many violent plans against the nation but hasn't been able to put them in practice because of the international support and the moral of the Venezuelan people.

The head of State said the campaign to collect 10 million signatures against Obama's executive order is a "sign" of the Venezuelan people's will to live in peace.

"Over 1.5 million signatures have been collected already, and our campaign in the social networks exceeds 3 million messages of support with Venezuela", he said.

The signature campaign is to last until April 9th, a day before the opening of the Summit of the Americas in Panama, where Obama is set to meet with all the region's leaders including Maduro. Endi