The US Vice President Mike Pence call was made during a meeting in Peru with Washington-backed Venezuelan opposition figures.

Pence said the US delegation that he was leading at the summit of Latin American leaders was "bringing a message for additional sanctions, additional isolation, and additional diplomatic pressure -- beginning in our hemisphere, but across the wider world -- to recognize that Venezuela is a dictatorship."

"We are with the people of Venezuela and will continue to do everything in our power to provide sustenance and support to those who have fled," Pence claimed.

The Venezuelan opposition leaders in the Lima meeting urged more US sanctions, and “intervention” in the Central American country in a bid to oust the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Washington has already put in place sanctions against Caracas and top Venezuelan government officials, as well as other measures to further weaken the country’s troubled economy and prevent the government and its state oil company from accessing international credit through US markets or entities.

Vice President Pence attended the Latin American summit instead of President Donald Trump, who stayed in Washington to monitor US military attack on Syria.