Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega slashed out at US oil firm Exxon Mobil for launching "a clear offensive of the empire in order to push (Venezuelan state-run oil firm) Pdvsa into bankruptcy," Efe reported.

The Sandinist leader claimed it was not by chance that the US National Security Director Michael McConnell told the US Congress that "the things that are happening in Latin America involve a threat."

According to Ortega, the US intelligence community in a report McConnell presented last February 5 was referring to Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and their Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA).

He added that such remarks come as part of a plan against Venezuela. He added that at the same time Exxon Mobil is winning court orders freezing Pdvsa's assets.

In his view, if Pdvsa goes bankrupt, all of the projects Venezuela is funding to help Nicaragua and other countries in the areas of energy, education, health, and agricultural would die.