The United States is "changing the game" with what has been happening on the ground in Venezuela, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday.

"Venezuela has been a very dangerous, very destabilized place going down the tubes," Wright told CBS News' "Face the Nation."  

"Venezuela has purchased $20 billion of Russian weapons," he continued. "They've got Cuban mercenaries there. They supply oil to Cuba. They harbor Hezbollah's headquarters for the Western Hemisphere."

But now, with Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro removed and the United States controlling the sale of the country's oil and flow of funds, "we will see relatively rapid change, improvement on the ground in Venezuela," said Wright. 

"This is a process. We're only eight days into the process, but it's off to a strong start," he added. 

President Donald Trump earlier Sunday warned Cuba to strike a deal with the United States, as the communist regime reels from the cutoff of Venezuelan oil and financial lifelines.

He also said that "Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them."

Meanwhile, the State Department on Saturday issued a security alert citing risks to Americans in Venezuela and said that armed militias are setting up roadblocks to search vehicles for evidence of U.S. citizenship or support for the United States. 

But when asked if Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello is ordering the hunting of Americans, Wright said that the government is not aware of that, but said that people still should be cautious. 

"[We are] eight days into a change of leadership there," said Wright. "The interim authorities are trying to establish power. Collectivos have been running wild over Venezuela for over a decade."

Meanwhile, the United States wants to reduce "the damage" that Venezuela has caused through crime and the destabilizing of a key part of the Western Hemisphere, said Wright. "We need to stop that," he said.

"Part of the way to improve Venezuela and to improve the Western Hemisphere and improve the lives of Americans is to get the very corrupt 25 years in decline, oil industry back going again."

Currently, he added, the United States is running the sale of Venezuelan crude oil, not the country itself. 

"We have a quarantine around their ability to ship oil outside of Venezuela," he said. "All of that goes through American crude marketers, and then that crude goes out into the market. We collect those funds and bring them back to Venezuela to better the lives of Americans and Venezuelans."

Countries in the Americas will likely expand their focus on Venezuela's oil reserves, said Wright.

Meanwhile, the courts have backed an American hedge fund, led by Trump donor Paul Singer, to purchase Citgo Petroleum, and Wright said a big part of the sale is in "bringing redress to creditors of the United States for the Venezuelan government."

"One of the capital providers in that transaction is a hedge fund provider you just mentioned," he said. "There are lots of American investors and American refining entrepreneurs that are involved in that."

And, Wright added, taking Venezuelan-owned refineries and transferring them to American owners is "fantastic," but there will be no preferential placement of people, as "we want those assets to get as much money as possible, to go back to the creditors of the Venezuelan government."