Venezuela published an open letter on Wednesday urging the US people to reject Washington’s “jingoist” sanctions and war threats.

The letter, published in several US newspapers including the New York Times and The Hill, accused US President Donald Trump of manufacturing a political crisis in Venezuela to force elected President Nicolas Maduro out of office.

"You must know that on August 11 2017 President Donald Trump threatened the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela with direct military intervention.

“This dangerous threat was rejected by all nations and by the people of the United States,” the letter from the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said.

“However, on August 25, President Trump imposed severe and unfair economic sanctions on us, publicly admitting his intention was to economically isolate Venezuela.”

The letter pointed out the same strategy was used against the elected socialist government of Chile in 1973, paving the way for the CIA-backed coup that brought fascist dictator General Pinochet to power.

It said the sanctions would not only harm the Venezuelan economy and restrict food and medical supplies, but raise prices at US petrol pumps and hit pension funds through a ban on trading in Venezuelan government bonds.

“This behaviour is inconsistent with Donald Trump’s campaign slogan: ‘Make America great again’,” it said, instead causing “global rejection and resentment towards the US government” and people “who have nothing to do with these warmongering actions.

It warned that just like in Iraq, “we might be on the verge of of an unfair and baseless military intervention, where oil is paramount.

It stressed that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had on several occasions reached out to Mr Trump seeking mutually respectful dialogue, but those efforts were ignored.

Meanwhile German Chancellor Angela Merkel refused to rule out EU sanctions against Caracas — after welcoming leaders of Venezuela’s putschist opposition to Berlin.

After meeting National Assembly president Julio Borges and his deputy Freddy Guevara, Ms Merkel offered support to “the Venezuelan people and all democratic forces.”

She urged Mr Maduro to reopen talks — which the opposition walked out of in February before launching four months of regime change riots that have left 124 dead.

On Tuesday Ms Merkel lamented that Lilian Tintori — the wife of Mr Guevara’s extremist Popular Will party leader Leopoldo Lopez — had been prevented from travelling with them.

Ms Tintori was summoned to court after 200 million bolivars (£15 million) in new banknotes were discovered in her brother’s van.