Venezuela Pres. Slams Biden for 'Vigilante' Remarks

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is lashing out against comments by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden regarding clashes between anti-government demonstrators and security forces.

The violence has been ongoing since protests broke out nearly a month ago.

Biden said the Venezuelan government may be using "armed vigilantes" against peaceful protesters, rather than engaging in a "genuine dialogue."

"The situation in Venezuela reminds me of previous eras when strongmen governed through violence and oppression; and human rights, hyper-inflation, scarcity, and grinding poverty wrought havoc on the people of the hemisphere," Biden told the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio.

The Maduro administration struck back Sunday, accusing Biden of traveling to South America "to attack the people of Venezuela."

"The American government has joined an international media conspiracy which aims to generate a false image of war and general repression in Venezuela, when in reality the situation has been created by artificial violence against the government," Venezuelan officials said in a statement.

"President Nicolas Maduro, in the name of the Venezuelan government, rejects categorically the statements made by the American vice president, Joe Biden, for his disrespect to Venezuelan sovereignty and direct aggression at the people," the statement read.