VENEZUELAN Congress deputies approved President Nicolas Maduro’s request for decree powers yesterday, supporting his case that he needs them to protect the country from US imperialism.

His request, in line with the constitution, to enact laws for up to six months without consulting Congress was given initial approval and is expected to gain final approval on Sunday.

The president asked for the powers after Washington imposed further sanctions on Monday on a handful of top Venezuelan officials whom it accused of human rights violations.

Mr Maduro said that he would use the new powers to ensure that Venezuela was never caught off guard by threats from the US government.

The country’s armed forces will conduct defensive military exercises this weekend alongside the people’s militias in light of this renewed US hostility.

Mr Maduro urged the population to participate in the exercises, saying: “Venezuela must be prepared, we must preserve the homeland as a land of peace.”

President Barack Obama declared Venezuela an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to the US earlier this week, prompting fears that Washington was laying the foundation for military intervention.

Mr Maduro pointed out that such declarations had been made prior to US acts of war in, among others, Panama in 1989, Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011.

He stressed that Venezuela posed no threat to any nation.

“Venezuela is not and never will be a threat to the US or to any other country in the world because we are a peaceful, humanist people who have an international policy that seeks understanding and the integration of peoples throughout the world,” he said.

“Venezuela is not, and can never be, Libya or Iraq. Venezuela is Venezuela, a land of peace, and we must keep it that way.”

Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez reaffirmed the armed forces’ loyalty to Mr Maduro, saying that they offered their “most emphatic and forceful rejection of those who wish to meddle in the internal affairs of our country.”