CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — President Nicolas Maduro claimed on Thursday that his US counterpart Donald Trump was being “poisoned” by “lies” about Venezuela.

“Do not let yourself be poisoned any longer against Venezuela. They poison you every day with lies,” Maduro said on State television after Trump blocked most Venezuelans from travelling to the United States, part of a total or partial ban on arrivals from 19 countries.

Trump’s proclamation invoked the need to protect the United States from “foreign terrorists and other national security” threats.

Venezuela hit back by saying the United States itself was a dangerous destination.

Maduro said he was appealing directly to Trump because he believed the US leader was “deceived” by his advisors about the South American country.

“We are good people; enough with the smear campaigns, enough with the lies,” Venezuela’s left-wing authoritarian leader added.

Venezuela has been in Trump’s sights since his return to office in January.

His Administration has tightened oil sanctions on the country, sent hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to a brutal prison for gangsters in El Salvador and revoked deportation protection from 300,000 Venezuelans in the United States.

Meanwhile, the United Nations’s human rights chief said on Thursday that Trump’s decision to ban citizens of 12 countries from visiting the United States has potential legal implications, .

“The broad and sweeping nature of the new travel ban raises concerns from the perspective of international law,” Volker Turk said in a statement.

That included “the principle of non-discrimination and of the necessity and proportionality of the measures deployed to meet the security concerns stated”, he added.

Trump on Wednesday announced a travel ban on 12 countries and restrictions on seven others in the wake of an attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that the authorities blamed on an Egyptian man they said was in the country illegally.

Turk cautioned about the language used to announce the move, saying the world body was “concerned” about “deeply regrettable official public statements disparaging the people affected by this measure”.

They risked stigmatising those nationals both in the United States and elsewhere, and increased the chances of them facing “xenophobic hostility and abuse”, he added.

The ban comes into force on Monday and affects citizens from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, the White House has said.

People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela are facing visa restrictions.