(CNN) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is unapologetic about his government's response to opposition protesters during weeks of unrest in the South American country. Think about what the U.S. government would do if a political group laid out a road map for overthrowing President Barack Obama, Maduro said Thursday in an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. "What would happen in the United States if a group said they were going to start something in the United States so that President Obama leaves, resigns, to change the constitutional government of the United States?" Maduro said, according to a CNN translation of his remarks. "Surely, the state would react, would use all the force that the law gives it to re-establish order and to put those who are against the Constitution where they belong."
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NEW: "I sleep like a baby," President Nicolas Maduro says
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He says the U.S. government would respond the same way to plans to overthrow Obama
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Weeks of anti-government protests have rattled politically polarized Venezuela
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Maduro tells Amanpour he wants respect and dialogue from the United States
Protesters have accused @placeholder's government of violence that has claimed some 20 lives during the protests.