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A defiant\u00a0Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u00a0declared himself \u201cthe president of my country\u201d as he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty Monday to federal drug trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power in Venezuela.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was captured,\u201d Maduro said in Spanish as translated by a courtroom reporter before being cut off by the judge. Asked later for his plea to the charges, he stated: \u201cI\u2019m innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The courtroom appearance, Maduro\u2019s first since he and his wife were\u00a0seized from their home\u00a0in a stunning middle-of-the-night military operation, kicked off the U.S. government\u2019s most consequential prosecution in decades of a foreign head of state. The criminal case in Manhattan is unfolding against a broader diplomatic backdrop of an audacious U.S.-engineered regime change that President Donald Trump has said will enable his administration\u00a0to \u201crun\u201d the South American country.<\/p>\n
Maduro was led into court along with his co-defendant wife just before noon for the brief legal proceeding. Both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceeding as it was translated into Spanish.<\/p>\n
The couple was transported to the Manhattan courthouse under armed guard early Monday from the Brooklyn jail where they\u2019ve been detained since arriving in the U.S. on Saturday.<\/p>\n
As a criminal defendant in the U.S. legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime \u2014 including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he\u2019ll also be nearly \u2014 but not quite \u2014 unique.<\/p>\n
The stakes were made clear from the outset as Maduro, who took copious notes throughout the proceedings and wished a Happy New Year to reporters in court, repeatedly pressed his case that he had been unlawfully abducted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here kidnapped,\u201d Maduro said. \u201cI was captured at my home in Caracas.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old jurist who was appointed to the federal bench in 1998 by Bill Clinton, interrupted him, saying: \u201cThere will be time and place to go through all of this.\u201d Hellerstein added that Maduro\u2019s attorney could do so later.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this time, I just want to know if you are Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Moros,\u201d which Maduro confirmed that he was.<\/p>\n
Maduro\u2019s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as head of state. Barry Pollack, a prominent Washington lawyer whose clients have\u00a0included WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, said Maduro is \u201chead of a sovereign state and entitled to the privilege\u201d that the status ensures. He also said the defense would raise \u201cquestions about the legality of his military abduction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Panamanian strongman\u00a0Manuel Noriega\u00a0unsuccessfully\u00a0tried the same immunity defense\u00a0after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn\u2019t recognize Maduro as Venezuela\u2019s legitimate head of state \u2014 particularly after a\u00a0much-disputed 2024 reelection.<\/p>\n
Maduro\u2019s wife, Cilia Flores, also pleaded not guilty on Monday. She had bandages on her forehead and right temple, and her lawyer said had she suffered \u201csignificant injuries\u201d during her capture.<\/p>\n
A 25-page indictment\u00a0accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of\u00a0thousands of tons of cocaine\u00a0into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n
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 a local drug boss\u2019 killing in Caracas, the indictment said.<\/p>\n
Outside the courthouse, police separated protesters of the U.S. military action from pro-intervention demonstrators. Inside the courtroom, as Maduro stood to leave with federal officers, a man in the audience stood and began speaking forcefully at him in Spanish, calling him an \u201cillegitimate\u201d president.<\/p>\n
The man, 33-year-old Pedro Rojas, said later that he had been imprisoned by the Venezuelan regime. As deputy U.S. marshals led Maduro from the courtroom, the deposed leader looked directly at the man and shot back in Spanish: \u201cI am a kidnapped president. I am a prisoner of war.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation early Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base. Trump said Saturday the U.S. would \u201crun\u201d Venezuela temporarily and reiterated Sunday night that \u201cwe\u2019re in charge,\u201d telling reporters aboard Air Force One that \u201cwe\u2019re going to run it, fix it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio had tried to strike a more cautious tone on Sunday morning talk shows, saying the U.S. would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing \u201d\u00a0oil quarantine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed U.S. hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela\u2019s rich oil and mineral resources.<\/p>\n
Trump has suggested that removing Maduro would enable more oil to flow out of Venezuela, but\u00a0oil prices\u00a0rose a bit more than 1% in Monday morning trading to roughly $58 a barrel. 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.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s new interim leader,\u00a0Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, has demanded that the U.S. return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking \u2014 although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with Trump and \u201crespectful relations\u201d with the U.S.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez was sworn in on Monday by her brother, National Assembly leader Jorge Rodr\u00edguez.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come with sorrow for the suffering inflicted upon the Venezuelan people following an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland,\u201d she said with her right hand up. \u201cI come with sorrow for the kidnapping of two heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maduro\u2019s son and Venezuelan congressman Nicol\u00e1s Maduro Guerra warned on Monday that his father\u2019s capture could set a dangerous precedent globally and demanded that his parents be returned.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we normalize the kidnapping of a head of state, no country is safe. Today it\u2019s 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,\u201d Maduro Guerra said<\/p>\n
Also Monday, the United Nations Security Council\u00a0held an emergency meeting, with the top U.N. official warning that America may have violated international law with its unilateral action. The world body also spotlighted the profound humanitarian needs in Venezuela. Its people have\u00a0endured a yearslong, complex economic crisis.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Tucker reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Regina Garcia Cano in Caracas, John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, Megan Janetsky in Mexico City, Farnoush Amiri and Jennifer Peltz at the United Nations, Josh Boak in Baltimore, Maryland, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#92yearold #judge #cuts #Maduros #protestations #innocence #short #time #place<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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