President Trump demanded the return of land and oil rights from Venezuela, saying “they took it away” and “we have a lot of oil there,” Trump said. ”They threw our companies out and we want it back.”

Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a law in 2007 that had his government take a majority stake in the operations of foreign oil companies in that country.

On Tuesday, the president ordered a “total and complete blockade” of sanctioned oil tankers in Venezuela. Trump posted on Truth Social that the blockade “will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”