(Ministry of Foreign Affairs - MRE) - "The Venezuelan government has taken a firm and sovereign stand against the discrediting campaign launched by the United States . Venezuela is a free and democratic nation building the XXI Century Socialism

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicolás Maduro, denounced that the U.S. government is financing an international campaign in order to discredit President Hugo Chávez and his Government.

Minister Maduro denounced this campaign launched by the U.S. government 'through all its mechanisms of psychological war, propaganda and international policy, as it has done during decades to destroy leading countries in the world.'

He said that the government of President Bush has resorted to use these moves to sell lies. 'Let's remember the big lie they sold by claiming that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Eventually, it was proven that it was a lie in order to justify a brutal attack that has caused the death of thousand of Iraqi lives and U.S. young men and women, who have not distressed President Bush.'

The Venezuelan minister of foreign affairs stressed that 'this evil propaganda machinery of psychological war has been activated to launch a campaign against President Chávez worldwide, against Venezuela.'

In opposition to this campaign that seeks to make people believe that 'Venezuela is a dictatorship,' he said that 'Venezuela is a strong democracy, a leading gone, with a popular nature.'

He added that 'everybody knows that we have a growing economy, which is being diversified and whose growth is expressed through different ways. Our economy will be increasingly stronger, with a State playing a key role in development.'

Nicolás Maduro disregarded the measures announced by the U.S. government and said that the Bolívarian Republic of Venezuela will continue fighting drug trafficking.

President Bush's administration decided to cut the contribution to Venezuela to fight drug trafficking and reduce the help it provided to other countries in the Andean zone.

Minister Maduro affirmed that since Venezuela is a sovereign country, 'it hasn't allowed itself to be blackmailed by some resources used by the U.S. government in order to penetrate some nations in the region.'

'Take your resources and do with them whatever you think you have to do. We'll continue fighting drug trafficking, whose final destination is the million of consumers in the United States as the product of the depredatory capitalism,' pointed out Nicolás Maduro".