Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro dismissed US economic sanctions imposed Wednesday against 13 current and former officials of his country as insolent.

The punishment by the Treasury Department is in retaliation for Maduro's plans to go ahead with a vote this weekend for an assembly that would rewrite the constitution.

Maduro called the sanctions "illegal,  insolent and unprecedented."

"Who do these imperialists in the United States think they are? The government of the world?" Maduro said in a speech.