Venezuela threatens US with energy, economic measures

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said Monday that the south American country will take " commercial, energy, economic and political" measures against the United States if sanctioned.

"If the United States resorts to economic sanctions or otherwise, we will take commercial, energy, economic and political measures as we deem necessary to respond forcefully to this unacceptable threat, we do not accept any empire threats," said Jaua during an interview with Venezuelan TV Channel Telesur in Ecuador, where he attended a meeting of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA).

"Be sure to deal with any kind of sanctions, we will respond with economic, political, social and diplomatic actions to defend the sacred right of the will of the Venezuelan people," he added.

Meanwhile, Jaua also condemned the remarks of Roberta Jacobson, assistant U.S. secretary of state for Latin America, who urged to recount the votes of the elections on April 14 to "resolve the division" in the country.

Jacobson claimed "half of Venezuelans do not have confidence in the outcome" of the elections in which Nicolas Maduro beat the opposition leader Henrique Capriles with a narrow margin of 1.78 percent of votes.

That "does not mean that there is anything suspicious or not, but it would be better ... If there is a process in which everyone can have confidence in the results," she said as in an interview with CNN en Espanol on Sunday.

Jaua said the Venezuelan government "rejected the unacceptable statements of Ms. Roberta Jacobson, who had already had a precedent by declaring that her candidate was Henrique Capriles... In Venezuela there is no recount of votes, because there is an electronic vote."

The U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that the United States has not decided whether to recognize Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela's new president, reiterating a call for a recount of the presidential votes as the opposition demands.

U.S.-Venezuela relations have strained in recent years, and the two countries have not had each other's ambassador since July 2010.

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