NEW YORK — Deposed President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in a US courtroom on narco-terrorism charges that the Trump administration used to justify his acquittal. grab him and bring him to New York.
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear before a judge at noon for a brief but mandatory trial that is likely to begin. lengthy legal battle on whether he can stand trial in the United States
The couple will be transported from a Brooklyn jail to a Manhattan courthouse located just around the corner from where President Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.
As a criminal defendant in the US legal system, Maduro would have the same rights as anyone else accused of a crime, including the right to a trial by a jury of ordinary New Yorkers. But it will also be almost, although not quite, unique.
Maduro's lawyers are expected to challenge the legality of his arrest, arguing that he has immunity from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriegatried the same defense without success after the US captured it in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the US does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate head of state of Venezuela – especially after controversial re-election in 2024.
New interim president of Venezuela Delcy Rodriguezdemanded that the US return Maduro, who has long denied any involvement in drug trafficking, although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, offering cooperation with Trump and a “respectful relationship” with the US.
Before his arrest, Maduro and his allies argued that US hostility was motivated by a thirst for Venezuela's rich oil and mineral resources.
The US captured Maduro and his wife in a military operation on Saturday, seizing them at their home on a military base. Trump has said the U.S. will temporarily “run” Venezuela, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday it won't run the country day-to-day other than to enforce the existing one. oil quarantine”
On Sunday, Trump said he wants expand American power further in the Western Hemisphere.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombian President Gustavo Petro “a sick man who loves to produce cocaine and sell it to the United States. And he's not going to do this for very long.”
He called on Venezuela's Rodriguez to be given “full access” to his country or face consequences.
25 page indictment Indicted on Saturday, Maduro and others are accused of collaborating with drug cartels to facilitate drug shipments. thousands of tons of cocaine in the USA. If convicted, they could face life in prison.
As of Sunday, it was not clear whether Maduro had retained an American lawyer.
He and his wife, Celia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first obtaining a Treasury Department license.
Although the indictment against Maduro states that Venezuelan officials directly collaborated with the Tren de Aragua gang, US intelligence assessment A report published in April, based on information from 18 intelligence community agencies, found a lack of coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.
Maduro, his wife and his son, who remains at large, are indicted along with Venezuela's former interior and justice minister and Hector Rustenford Guerrero Flores, the alleged leader of Tren de Aragua, who faces criminal charges in a separate case and remains at large.
Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering the kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them money for drugs or undermined their drug trafficking activities. The indictment says this included the murder of a local drug lord in Caracas.
Maduro's wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 for arranging a meeting between a “major drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela's National Drug Enforcement Agency, which resulted in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro's wife, according to the indictment.
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Hannah reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, Darlene Superville on Air Force One and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.
