Nicolás Maduro returned to Manhattan federal court on Wednesday for a hearing in the drug trafficking case brought by the U.S. Justice Department against the ousted Venezuelan president and his wife, Cilia Flores. They were captured from their Caracas home by U.S. forces in an overnight raid on Jan. 3.
U.S. prosecutors have accused Maduro and Flores of conspiring with drug cartels to facilitate the flow of thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States. They pleaded not guilty in January.
Barry Pollack, Maduro’s defense attorney, said that he plans to contest what he described as their “military abduction,” arguing his client is the “head of a sovereign state” and should be afforded immunity from prosecution. Maduro has called himself “a prisoner of war” and his arrest by U.S. forces a kidnapping.
Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein set a trial date of June 1, 2027. Pollack’s sovereign immunity argument will be heard sometime before that.
Several dozen demonstrators, some of them draped in Venezuelan flags, gathered outside the courthouse ahead of Wednesday’s hearing to protest Maduro’s arrest, calling for him and his wife to be freed.
President Trump defended the Maduro operation, saying it “proved once again that we have the most powerful, most lethal, most sophisticated and most fearsome — it’s a fearsome military — on planet Earth, and it’s not even close.” Trump initially said that the U.S. would temporarily “run” Venezuela while the administration insisted that Maduro’s capture was a law enforcement action and “not a regime change.”
Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, has been serving as Venezuela’s acting president since his arrest.
What are Maduro and Flores charged with?
A motorcade believed to be carrying Maduro leaves Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on July 22.
(Yuki Iwamura/AP)Maduro and two codefendants were indicted on four counts:
Narco-terrorism conspiracy
Conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States
Possession of machine guns and destructive devices
Conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices
Flores and three others were charged with the cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offenses.
They face potential life sentences in prison if found guilty.
What’s next?
A protester holds the Venezuelan flag outside Manhattan federal court on July 22 calling for Maduro and Flores to be freed.
(Angelina Katsanis/Reuters)Maduro and Flores are being held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center alongside several other high-profile inmates, including Luigi Mangione and Sean “Diddy” Combs. They have not asked to be released on bail.
