Caracas, December 18 (RHC)-- The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry rejects a bill that seeks to maintain the sanctions imposed by Washington, in addition to offending the people and the legacy of Simón Bolívar.

The Venezuelan Government strongly condemned this Saturday the approval by the U.S. Congress of a bill that, both in its name and in its content, constitutes a violation of economic freedoms and a serious offense to the Venezuelan people.

Through a statement, the Foreign Ministry denounced that the proposed law violates the integrity of the sovereign people of Venezuela and of the U.S. companies that want to do business with Caracas, "by placing them at risk of being arbitrarily, unfairly and illegally penalized for exercising their right to free trade through contracts with the Bolivarian Government."

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry stated that the U.S. legislation, described as nefarious, intends to make irreversible the unilateral coercive measures imposed by the White House on the South American nation.

The Foreign Ministry detailed that said bill was conceived from the extremist sectors of U.S. politics and affirmed that it is contrary to international law.  It stated that this fact confirms "that those same sectors have no interest in seeing in Venezuela a development process, an improvement in the quality of life of our population and much less that free and fair elections are guaranteed, by promoting more obstacles and hostile measures against the country."

The Foreign Ministry stressed that these ultra-conservative and coup-mongering sectors persist in their outrage against Caracas and "persist in their attempt to overthrow the Venezuelan Government and to destroy any possible route to dialogue and constructive relations between the two countries."

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry accused these sectors of offending "the Venezuelan people, its history and its Liberator (Simón Bolívar), whose republican values and commitment to the principles of freedom and peace are far above those of a handful of legislators ignorant of his glory."