Venezuela's President Nicholas Maduro denounces US 'imperialism'
|
Version 0 of 1. Venezuela’s leader Nicolas Maduro has attacked the US and accused it of imperialism – hours after Barack Obama claimed Caracas was a threat to America’s national security and announced a series of sanctions. “President Barack Obama, in the name of the US imperialist elite, has decided to personally take on the task of defeating my government, intervening in Venezuela, and controlling it from the US,” Mr Maduro said in a televised speech. He added: “Obama today took the most aggressive, unjust and poisonous step that the US has ever taken against Venezuela.” In his speech on Monday evening, Mr Maduro also said that he would ask the parliament to grant him new powers so that he could defend the country against all aggressions and threats to its sovereignty. However, according to Reuters he did not specify the powers he would be seeking, The speech came on the same day the US declared Venezuela a threat to its national security and announced sanctions against seven Venezuela officials who will be denied visas and have any assets frozen. Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, had a tense relationship with Washington “Venezuelan officials past and present who violate the human rights of Venezuelan citizens and engage in acts of public corruption will not be welcome here, and we now have the tools to block their assets and their use of US financial systems,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement. Mr Maduro, elected two years ago after the death of Hugo Chavez and struggling with severe economic problems, has faced claims that his government become increasingly autocratic when dealing with its opponents. They point to incidents such as last month’s including detaining of opposition leader and Caracas metropolitan mayor, Antonio Ledezma, who was arrested for his purported involvement in an alleged coup plot against the Maduro government. Opposition leader and Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma was detained last month The seven individuals named in the White House order reportedly included Antonio Jose Benavides Torres, a former director of Venezuela's Bolivarian National Guard, a body accused of conducting human rights abuses, and Manuel Eduardo Perez Urdaneta, director of the Bolivarian National Police. Mr Maduro has repeatedly accused the US of interfering in Venezuela affairs and last week ordered Washington to reduce the size of its diplomatic contingent. In 2004, it emerged that the US had been channelling hundreds of thousands of dollars to fund the political opponents of then President Hugo Chavez, including those who briefly overthrew him two years earlier. Among those who supported the attempt were Mr Ledezma. |