The United States has placed visa restrictions on unnamed Venezuelan officials it accuses of human rights violations as well as government corruption.

"We are sending a clear message that human rights abusers, those who profit from public corruption, and their families are not welcome in the United States," Jen Psaki, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said according to BBC.  

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who believes that the opposition party in his county is being backed by the U.S., has stated that the new measures, which build upon sanctions imposed last year on officials thought to have violated the rights of protesters, are a blatant attempt to violate Venezuelan sovereignty, reports. Furious at the sanctions, Maduro intends to write a letter to President Barack Obama.

Maduro voiced his indignation by bringing up the Venezuela-born hero of Latin American liberation.

"We can't let an empire that has been eyeing all of us pretend or think it has the right to sanction the country of [Simon] Bolivar," he said.

The sanctions that were first imposed in December were directed at officials who were accused of suppressing anti-government protests that occurred in Venezuela in 2014.

According to BBC, the new visa restrictions come a day after Maduro hurled accusations  at U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden, whom he says is plotting a coup against Venezuela’s socialist government.

Biden's office has described the allegation as "baseless and patently false."

"President Maduro's accusations are clearly part of an effort to distract from the concerning situation in Venezuela, which includes repeated violations of freedom of speech, assembly, and due process," a statement said.

Although relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been strained for many years, Biden and Maduro have been cordial in the past, shaking hands in Brazil during the Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff's inauguration ceremony on Jan. 1.