BOGOTA 

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused WhatsApp of being a spying system and advised people to switch to other applications.

During a meeting with representatives of the fishing and agriculture sectors at the Miraflores Presidential Palace in Caracas, Maduro commented on current issues.

Maduro said: "WhatsApp gave the list it has in Venezuela to the Colombian drug traffickers and they did a spying job for months."

He noted that the social network was used for “psychological, cognitive warfare, threatened millions of leaders, communities, street leaders, military and police families, athletes, artists and anyone who did not speak out in favor of the coup d’etat and violence."

Recommending WeChat and Telegram to Venezuelans, Maduro called on people to voluntarily leave WhatsApp and switch to other networks.

Despite the unfair economic embargoes and difficulties imposed on Venezuela, Maduro claimed they have achieved miraculous successes in agricultural production.

* Writing by Alperen Aktas from Istanbul