Thousands of Venezuelans protest against U.S. sanctions

Thousands of Venezuelans, which includes cabinet members as well as other senior government officials, rallied right here Sunday to protest against U.S. sanctions on the South American nation's state-owned oil provider Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA).

The march started inside the downtown Catia Square at 11:00 a.m. local time (1530 GMT) and lasted for 3 hrs. Wearing red clothes, the color from the country's ruling party, the protesters chanted the slogan "Venezuela will need to be respected."

The demonstration was called by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and government officials were amongst the protesters, which includes cabinet members, governors, mayors and leaders from the PSUV.

Power and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez, who is also president with the PDVSA, stated the protest was meant to reject the pressures with the U.S. imperialism against Venezuela.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hailed the protest by way of his Twitter account.

On Tuesday, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on seven foreign companies, such as PDVSA and Israeli Ofer Brothers Group, which it stated are involved in supplying Iran with gasoline as well as other refined petroleum solutions.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg mentioned that the sanctions had been aimed to avoid Iran from receiving resources to support its allegedly "illegal nuclear activities".

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