VENEZUELA condemned yesterday the latest attacks from Washington amid deadly putschist riots.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez issued an early morning statement in response to acting US Assistant Secretary of State Francisco Palmieri’s comments on Wednesday at the 47 Washington Conference on the Americas.

Mr Palmieri dismissed socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s calling of a National Constituent Assembly to draft amendments to chart a way out of the crisis.

“We know the solution to Venezuela’s problems is not less democracy, but more democracy,” he said, echoing Venezuelan opposition demands for an unconstitutional early presidential election.

“An autocratic, top-down authoritarian exercise dressed up as a constituent assembly, having already lost legitimacy at home and abroad, will not help either.”

Mr Palmieri also announced a “comprehensive review” of the previous government’s detente with Havana, consulting prominent anti-Cubans including Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

Ms Rodriguez said her government condemned the US government’s “pretension to intervene in Venezuela and impose its tutelage over our homeland.”

ANC commission president Elias Jaua said on Wednesday the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (Mud) coalition’s boycott of internationally mediated talks since January made the assembly vital to avoid a civil war.

Earlier this week, two more Venezuelans were killed in Mud regime-change riots.

Miguel Castillo died of a chest wound he suffered at a demonstration in the Las Mercedes district of Caracas, where 93 were also injured.

And tuk-tuk driver Anderson Dugarte died in hospital on Wednesday after was shot in the head on Monday.