Venezuela will never humiliate itself before any empire, Maduro said, speaking in Caracas on Friday at an International Conference titled “Colonialism, Neocolonialism, and the Territorial Dispossession of the Western Empire.”

“Venezuela will never humiliate itself before any empire, regardless of its power or name,” he said, adding, “It will be taught, in proper measure, a moral, ethical, and political lesson in the years to come.”

He added that the US wanted to launch an armed aggression against Venezuela with the aim of imposing a “puppet government” and stealing the country’s resources.

“The people of the United States are attentive, observant, and the people of the United States are very aware of what is intended against Venezuela. It is an armed aggression to impose regime change, to impose puppet governments, and to steal the oil, gas, gold, and all the natural resources of a homeland that is forging its own path with its own model.”

Earlier this week, Maduro asserted that any armed aggression will be countered with a united regional response, emphasizing that the Bolivarian nation will not become a colony or subordinate to any foreign power.

“We will never be a backyard, a colony, or slaves of any supremacist empire,” Maduro emphasized.

“If Venezuela is attacked, we will all be attacked,” he said. “We must unite as one liberating army of South America to confront imperialist aggression.”

Since the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, the United States has always considered Latin America as its “backyard” open to ventures.