Venezuelan president condemns new U.S. "conspiracy" against his country

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro rejected Saturday a new "conspiracy" by the U.S. government to use the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IDC) of the Organization of American States (OAS) to justify foreign intervention in his country.

In a televised broadcast, Maduro urged U.S. President Barack Obama to rectify this attitude against his administration and demanded respect to Venezuela's sovereignty.

"I reject a document of the National Security Strategy of the United States government because it's an interventionist text," he said.

Maduro explained that the report publicly presented on Saturday by Obama indicated that Washington would support "citizens of countries where the full exercise of democracy is at risk, as in Venezuela."

"I make an urgent call to the governments of Latin America to support Venezuela and reject the new conspiracy organized by the United States against our democracy," said Maduro.

According to Maduro, the IDC is an instrument adopted in 2001 by a majority of right-wing OAS leaders to support an intervention in Caracas.

He added that in the next few days he will send a letter to the U.S. president expressing his government's "independent" position and addressing "disturbing statements" made recently by Obama.

"I demand respect to our nation and government from President Obama," he said.

He urged the Venezuelan people to "continue overcoming conspiracies" and warned the local opposition that his government won't allow any form of violence in the South American nation.

"Latin America is no longer the backyard of the United States and Venezuela is no longer its oil colony," added Maduro.

The Council of Foreign Ministers of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) will meet Monday to discuss Washington's recent sanctions on Venezuelan officials. Enditem