Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro said he is a ‘prisoner of war’ who has been ‘kidnapped’ from his Caracas home during a testy first court appearance.
Maduro said: ‘I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I’m the President of Venezuela. I consider myself a prisoner of war,’ as he and wife Cilia Flores both pleaded not guilty to drugs charges at Manhattan Federal Court on Monday.
Maduro waved at Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan Federal Court on Monday afternoon, then laid into the Trump administration.
Maduro and wife Cilia Flores, who was also in court Monday, were seized from their compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas by Delta Force soldiers on Saturday and brought to the United States.
President Trump has accused the pair of running the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns) and flooding the United States with cocaine.
Flores spoke only to say ‘Not guilty, completely innocent’ when her charges were put to her on Monday.
Maduro complained that he had not seen the indictment listing the charges against him prior to his arraignment hearing and added that he had not been made aware of his rights.
The couple were ordered held in custody until their next court appearance on March 17.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia are brought to Manhattan to face a federal judge on drugs and weapons charges on Monday morning
Nicolas Maduro looks into the sky as he’s taken to court on Monday. He claims he is a ‘prisoner of war’ and has denied drug trafficking charges
Trump first indicted the Venezuelan leader in 2020 and seized him from his compound last week after Maduro ignored repeated orders to stand down as president and go into exile, in return for amnesty from criminal charges.
No cameras are allowed inside federal courtrooms, but the Maduros were seen being transferred to court via helicopter and car earlier on Monday morning.
Handcuffed and dressed in prison garb, the pair were removed from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and brought to a waiting chopper.
From there, they made the short flight across the East River to the tip of Manhattan before being driven to court amid a huge police presence.
The couple could be put to death if convicted of the charges they face.
They were seized in an incredible secret dead-of-night raid in the early hours of Saturday.
President Trump said 150 aircraft took off from 20 bases across the western hemisphere in an operation that had been in the works since August.
CIA spies on the ground in Venezuela had been keeping track of Maduro and Flores’s movements, with the security-conscious pair sleeping somewhere different every night in a bid to avoid capture.
Pro and anti-Maduro protesters lined the streets outside Manhattan Federal Courthouse Monday morning as Nicolas Maduro and wife Cilia Flores were arraigned
Maduro and wife Cilia Flores are pictured together in Caracas in January 2024. The couple now face a much-diminished existence in a US federal lockup
White House officials decided they were ready to seize the Maduros last month but had to wait for optimum weather before launching their strike.
President Trump gave the green light at 10:46pm ET on Friday.
Members of Delta Force, the US Army’s most elite unit, flew low by helicopter across the Atlantic and into Venezuelan airspace supported by a fleet of military aircraft.
Once inside the country’s borders, US planes and drones were able to destroy Venezuelan anti-aircraft defense and cut power lines.
Delta Force soldiers entered Maduro’s compound at 1:01am ET Saturday. Maduro went to flee to a metal safe room but was seized before he could secure himself inside, Trump said.
He and Flores were then taken by helicopter to the USS Iwo Jima warship, where they landed at 3:29am ET.
Venezuelan officials say 80 members of the armed forces and civilians were killed during the capture mission.
One US service member was injured by return fire, but there were no American fatalities.
Later that day, the couple were flown to New York City and then kept in custody over the weekend.
President Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe watch the operation to capture the Maduros from a temporary ‘situation room’ constructed at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach early Saturday
Flames are seen billowing over Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, during Saturday morning’s operation to capture Nicolas Maduro
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez is now the de-facto leader of the nation, with Trump yet to say who he’d like to install as Maduro’s permanent replacement.
Maduro, who was first elected to power in 2013, was unpopular among voters by the time of his capture.
He had been branded an authoritarian dictator who silenced dissent while destroying the oil-rich country’s economy.
Trump said Saturday that the United States now ‘runs’ Venezuela and that he will use the country’s oil wealth to help rebuild its shattered financial system.
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