Venezuela gathers million signatures against Obama declaring Caracas threat
Activists in Venezuela have gathered more than one million signatures for a petition calling on US President Barack Obama to repeal his executive order declaring Venezuela a national security threat, TeleSur TV reported citing the head of the campaign, according to Sputnik.
The campaign "Obama, Venezuela is not a threat" launched last Thursday managed to get more than a million signatures in just four days. Another 2.6 million people have supported the petition on Twitter by using the #ObamaRepealTheExecutiveOrder hashtag, according to the head of the campaign Caracas Mayor Jorge Rodriguez.
"I think it is an impressive figure," Rodrigues said as quoted by the local media.
The Venezuelan government will take the signatures to the Summit of the Americas in Panama scheduled for April 10-11.
On March 9, US President Barack Obama signed the executive order declaring Venezuela a threat to US national security and sanctioning seven Venezuelan officials over alleged human rights abuses during mass demonstrations in 2014.
On Saturday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the statement "absurd" and suggested that Washington should stop looking for enemies among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.