CARACAS, December 18. /TASS/. Venezuela’s armed forces reject the United States’ accusations and threats and will defend the country’s independence and territorial integrity, the Venezuelan defense ministry said in a statement.

"Venezuela’s National Armed Forces categorically reject US President Donald Trump’s delusional statements made on December 16, where he brazenly threatened our country with military actions and ordered a total naval blockade with the aim of confiscating ships transporting Venezuelan oil, which is a gross act of piracy," it said.

The escalation of threats of the use of force against Venezuela is aimed at "changing the regime, seize oil and other strategic resources of the republic," the ministry stressed, adding that the United States is seeking to revive the Monroe Doctrine and "establish its neocolonial domination in the Western Hemisphere."

The Venezuelan people, army, and police will safeguard "the republic’s constitutional and democratic system, the country’s territorial integrity, its legitimate rights to its air and maritime space and will defend freedom, sovereignty, independence, and peace," the ministry emphasized.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump 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.