Caracas, November 19 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told teleSUR that his government rejected the U.S.’s spying on his country, exposed Wednesday by teleSUR and The Intercept.

The two media organizations uncovered how the U.S. National Security Agency accessed the internal communications of Venezuela's state-owned oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), and acquired sensitive data it planned to exploit in order to spy on the company’s top officials.  A highly classified NSA document showed how the operation was carried out together with the U.S Embassy in Caracas.

Maduro rejected the U.S. spying on PDVSA, telling teleSUR’s Madelein Garcia that his government would write a protest message and “review our relationship with the U.S. again.”

“U.S. imperialism, for a long time, has wanted to sabotage our petroleum industry and defeat the Bolivarian government in order to take over Venezuela’s petroleum,” Maduro said later on the public television station VTV. 

He instructed Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez to meet with the U.S. government, emphasizing that no country “has the right to intervene in the affairs of other countries.” He said he wanted her to demand an apology from the U.S. for the magnitude of their illegal actions. 

“Why did they spy on thousands of PDVSA workers? For the economic war, persecution, to destroy (the revolution) from the inside,” Maduro said.
     
Venezuela and the U.S. have had strained and irregular relations after a series of direct and indirect interventions in Venezuela’s sovereign affairs by the U.S.  The most recent frayed relations occurred earlier this year when U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order declaring Venezuela a “threat.”