Maduro in US court: ‘I’m here kidnapped’
A defiant Nicolás Maduro declared himself “the president of my country” as he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal drug trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power in Venezuela.
“I was captured,” Maduro said in Spanish as translated by a courtroom interpreter before being cut off by the judge.
Asked later for his plea to the charges, he stated: “I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country.”
Maduro’s court appearance in Manhattan, his first since he and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized from their Caracas home on Saturday in a stunning middle-of-the-night military operation, kicked off the US government’s most consequential prosecution in decades of a foreign head of state. She also pleaded not guilty.
The criminal case is unfolding against a broader diplomatic backdrop of an audacious US-engineered regime change that President Donald Trump has said will enable his administration to “run” the South American country.
Maduro, 63, was brought to court under heavy security early Monday—flown by helicopter to Manhattan from Brooklyn, where he is jailed, and then driven to the courthouse in an armored vehicle. He and Flores were led into court just before noon. Both were in leg shackles and jail-issued garb, and both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceeding as it was translated into Spanish.
As Maduro left the courtroom, a man in the audience denounced him as an “illegitimate” president.
Legal fight begins
As a criminal defendant in the US legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person charged with a crime in the country—including the right to jury trial. But, given the circumstances of his arrest and the geopolitical stakes at play, he’ll also be nearly—but not quite—unique.
That was made clear from the outset as Maduro, who took copious notes throughout the proceedings and wished Happy New Year to reporters as he entered the courtroom, repeatedly pressed his case that he had been unlawfully abducted.
“I am here kidnapped since Jan. 3, Saturday,” Maduro said, standing and leaning his tall frame toward a tabletop microphone. “I was captured at my home in Caracas.”
US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old jurist who was appointed to the federal bench in 1998 by Bill Clinton, interrupted him, saying: “There will be a time and place to go into all of this.” Hellerstein added that Maduro’s lawyer could do so later.
“At this point in time, I only want to know one thing: Are you Nicolás Maduro Moros?”
“I am Nicolás Maduro Moros,” the defendant responded.
Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said he expects to contest the legality of his “military abduction.”
Pollack, a prominent Washington lawyer whose clients have included WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, said Maduro is “head of a sovereign state and is entitled to the privileges and immunities that go with that office.”
Immunity defense
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega unsuccessfully tried the same immunity defense after the US captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the United States doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state—particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.
Flores, who identified herself to the judge as “first lady of the Republic of Venezuela,” had bandages on her forehead and right temple. Her lawyer, Mark Donnelly, said she suffered “significant injuries” during her capture.
A 25-page indictment accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States. They could face life in prison if convicted.
Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings, and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. That included the killing of a local drug boss in Caracas, the indictment said.
Outside the courthouse, police separated those protesting the US military action from prointervention demonstrators.
Inside the courtroom, as the proceeding wrapped up and Maduro prepared to leave, 33-year-old Pedro Rojas stood up and began speaking forcefully at him in Spanish.
Rojas said later that he had been imprisoned by the Venezuelan regime. As deputy US marshals led Maduro from the courtroom, the deposed leader looked directly at the man and shot back in Spanish: “I am a kidnapped president. I am a prisoner of war.”
‘We’re in charge’
Trump said on Saturday the United States would “run” Venezuela temporarily and reiterated on Sunday night that “we’re in charge,” telling reporters “we’re going to run it, fix it.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to strike a more cautious tone, telling on Sunday morning talk shows that the United States would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing “oil quarantine.”
Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed US hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.
Trump has suggested that removing Maduro would enable more oil to flow out of Venezuela, but oil prices rose 1.7 percent on Monday. There are uncertainties about how fast oil production can be ramped up in Venezuela after years of neglect, as well as questions about governance and oversight of the sector.
Venezuela’s new interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the United States return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking—although late Sunday she struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with Trump and “respectful relations” with the United States.
Maduro’s son and Venezuelan congressman Nicolás Maduro Guerra warned on Monday that his father’s capture could set a dangerous precedent globally and demanded that his parents be returned.
“If we normalize the kidnapping of a head of state, no country is safe.
“Today it’s Venezuela. Tomorrow it could be any nation that refuses to submit. This is not a regional problem. It is a direct threat to global political stability,” Maduro Guerra said.
