Venezuela’s Maduro calls on UN to rally against US sanctions

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has called on the United Nations General Assembly to rally against United States sanctions imposed on his country, as well as its allies including Cuba, Nicaragua and Syria. “We must demand the cessation of all unilateral coercive measures, of all the alleged sanctions, and that they allow our people to exercise their own rights,” Maduro said in video remarks before the UN. The administration of US President Donald Trump has ramped up sanctions against Venezuela in the past two years as part of an effort to oust Maduro, who it accuses of corruption, human rights violations, and rigging his 2018 re-election. Maduro has overseen a six-year economic collapse in the once-prosperous OPEC nation, which the opposition and most economists attribute to Venezuela’s interventionist economic policies. Venezuela’s ruling socialist party blames the US sanctions for the country’s woes. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">