Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez on Sunday dismissed recent remarks by commander of the U.S. military's Southern Command as "irrelevant" to efforts to improve bilateral ties.

In a Friday press briefing, Gen. John F. Kelly said, "I spend about 40 seconds a day contemplating the situation of Venezuela, and that's in prayer for the Venezuelan people. Any people ... deserve better than what many people in Venezuela have."

In a speech on Sunday at an official event in the western state of Cojedes, Padrino responded by saying, "I would call on all Venezuelans to also raise a prayer so that the U.S. once and for all abandon its imperial policies, which have caused so much harm and pain to the entire world."

Ties have been strained since 1999 between U.S. and Venezuela, which is also troubled by domestic tensions between leftist and rightist political parties.

The conservative camp gained the control of parliament in December's legislative elections as voters expressed their discontent with runaway inflation and shortages of basic goods.

On Thursday, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro accused the new majority right-wing opposition in the National Assembly of trying to "escalate" political tensions at home to justify U.S. military intervention.

He also mentioned recently that unclassified documents showed the current president of Venezuela's National Assembly Henry Ramos Allup used to visit the U.S. embassy in Caracas to ask for money to fund right-wing campaigns. Endi

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