The Venezuelan government-initiated campaign calling for US President Barack Obama to repeal his executive order that arbitrarily declares Venezuela an "extraordinary threat" to US "national security" had more than 6 million signatures as March 31.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced on his weekly television program that the campaign has collected 6.2 million signatures so far. “I believe that Obama's threat has awoken a great amount of love for what we are going for in our country,” said Maduro.
The aim of the campaign is to gather at least 10 million signatures to be presented at the Summit of the Americas, which is scheduled to take place in Panama City on April 10 and 11. Maduro added that volunteers will gather signatures in tourist destinations throughout the country during this coming holiday weekend.
The Venezuelan president also announced that starting next year, the country will commemorate March 9 — the day Obama signed the decree — as the day of Bolivarian Anti-imperialism. “History will remember President Obama as the man who sought to intimidate a people and what resulted was the rising of nationalism and patriotism, and Bolivarian spirit of this people,” said Maduro.
A recent poll showed that 92% of Venezuelans reject any US intervention in the country, while 64% disagreed with sanctions imposed on Venezuelan officials by Washington and 62% thought that the U.S. government's perception of what is really happening in Venezuela was wrong.
Obama's executive order has galvanised support within Venezuela and throughout the world for the oil-rich South American nation's democratically-elected government.
Organisations such as the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR, which unites 12 South American nations) and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC, which united all nations in the Americas except the US and Canada) have rejected the unilateral sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the US.
Readers can sign the letter calling for Obama to repeal the decree online.
[Reprinted from TeleSUR English.]
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