Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, in a defiant interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday, said the U.S. government is fabricating a crisis to start a war in South America and Maduro does not trust "the people that are around" President Donald Trump.

"Everything that the United States government has done has been doomed to failure," Maduro told ABC News' Tom Llamas. "They are trying to fabricate a crisis to justify political escalation and a military intervention in Venezuela to bring a war to South America."

The interview follows an announcement by Vice President Mike Pence of new sanctions by the Trump administration on allies of Maduro after an effort to deliver humanitarian aid to the economically devastated nation faltered amid strong resistance from security forces loyal to the socialist leader.

Maduro called Pence a man "who doesn't know world politics" and said the people surrounding Trump and advising him on Venezuelan policies "are bad, and I think that at one point, President Trump will have to say 'stop, stop, we have to see what happens with Venezuela,' and change his politics."

Maduro also referred to National Security Adviser John Bolton as an "extremist and expert of the Cold War" and U.S. envoy Elliot Abrams "a liar that trafficked arms and drugs in Central America and the world and brought war to the United States."

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, he said, is "a CIA agent who has an antiquated scheme of old intelligence from the Cold War."

• Pence in Colombia Announces New Sanctions on Maduro
• Military Members Who Back Maduro Must Be Held Accountable