Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the expulsion of three US consular officials accusing the United States of supporting Venezuelan opposition to destabilize the country

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has ordered the expulsion of three US consular officials accusing the United States of supporting Venezuelan opposition to destabilize the country.

Maduro ordered the expulsions on Sunday, as tensions rise over the anti-government demonstrations being held across the country.

The American consular officials were not identified; however, Maduro said they had met with university students involved in the protests.

“It's a group of US functionaries who are in the universities. We’ve been watching them having meetings in the private universities for two months. They work in visas,” said the Venezuelan president.

Maduro said he would not tolerate threats to Venezuela’s sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Leopoldo Lopez, a leader of the opposition, for whom an arrest warrant has been issued, called on anti-government protesters to continue staging demonstrations in order to increase pressure on Maduro.

Lopez made the appeal in a video recording posted on his Twitter account on Sunday, in which he also said he would march together with the demonstrators on Tuesday in the capital, Caracas, and then hand himself in at the state prosecutor’s office.

Venezuelan authorities accuse the opposition leader of murder and terrorism in connection with last week’s anti-government protests, which left three people dead and dozens of others injured.