WASHINGTON, December 18. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has said that Washington wants to regain the oil rights in Venezuela that were allegedly taken away from the US.

"You remember, they took all of our energy rights. They took all of our oil from not that long ago, and we want it back, but they took it. They illegally took it," he told reporters at Joint Base Andrews.

Earlier, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that Venezuela was "completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America," adding that it would "only get bigger" and "be like nothing they have ever seen before" until Caracas returns to Washington "stolen" oil and other assets.

Washington has accused Caracas of not doing enough to combat drug smuggling. According to The New York Times, US President Donald Trump has authorized CIA covert operations in Venezuela. According to the US media, Washington may begin delivering strikes on drug cartels in Venezuela in the near future.

In August, The New York Times reported that Trump had signed a classified directive to begin using military force against Latin American drug cartels. Afterward, significant additional US military units were deployed to the Caribbean Sea region. Washington then began launching airstrikes against boats that the US government claimed were transporting drugs to the US in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. In November, the Pentagon announced that a strike group of US ships led by the aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford had entered the area of responsibility of the US Southern Command to combat drug smuggling in the region.