Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Brazilian leader Luis Inacio Lula de Silva on Monday assailed U.S. sanctions against Venezuela and Maduro said he hopes a regional South American summit in Brasilia will call for their removal. Lula called the U.S. sanctions "extremely exaggerated" and criticized the United States for denying the legitimacy of fellow leftist Maduro, who is considered by Washington an authoritarian leader who has not allowed free elections.