Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said in a federal courtroom that he was “kidnapped” as he pleaded not guilty in New York City to charges he masterminded a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Mr. Maduro wore a blue prison uniform but repeatedly reminded the Manhattan courtroom that he led a South American country of nearly 30 million people before the weekend military raid that sent him to the U.S. in handcuffs.
“I was captured,” Mr. Maduro told the court. “I am a decent man, the president of my country.
“I am innocent. I am not guilty of anything that is mentioned here,” he said of U.S. charges against him.
Mr. Maduro and his wife and co-defendant, Cilia Flores, wore headsets to translate the English-language proceedings into Spanish.
Mr. Maduro faces a criminal process that could take more than a year and raises thorny legal questions, including whether the U.S. raid to capture him was legal and whether he is entitled to immunity because of his status as a head of state.
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“It’s my job to assure this is a fair trial,” said U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, a Clinton appointee. “That’s my job, and that’s what I intend.”
Delcy Rodriguez, who had been serving as Venezuela’s vice president, was sworn in as interim president in Venezuela while the courtroom drama unfolded in New York.
“I come with sorrow for the suffering inflicted upon the Venezuelan people following an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland,” Ms. Rodriguez said with her right hand up. “I come with sorrow for the kidnapping of two heroes.”
An indictment charges Mr. Maduro, his wife and other Venezuelan officials with a narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of a machine gun and other destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and other destructive devices.
Court documents say Mr. Maduro led a “corrupt illegitimate government” that abused its power to “transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.” He used the proceeds from the illegal drug activity to enrich himself, his family and Venezuela’s political and military elite, the indictment says.
Mr. Maduro repeatedly said he remains the leader of his country and is learning his rights within the U.S. justice system in real time.
SEE ALSO: Trump administration starts outlining post-Maduro strategy, keeping grip on Venezuelan oil
“I did not know of these rights,” he said through his interpreter. “Your honor is informing me of them now.”
Ms. Flores also said she maintains her role back home.
“I am first lady of the Republic of Venezuela,” she said. Asked to enter a plea, she responded: “Not guilty. Completely innocent.”
Mr. Maduro is represented by Barry J. Pollack, a Washington-based lawyer known for securing the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from prison and winning an acquittal for former Enron accountant Michael Krautz.
Mr. Pollack said he is not seeking bail for Mr. Maduro but might do so in the future.
The defense attorney said there were questions about the legality of Mr. Maduro’s “military abduction,” so he would file pretrial motions to address that issue.
Mr. Maduro’s next court appearance is scheduled for March 17.
Ms. Flores’ attorney, Mark Donnelly, said she may have a fracture or severe bruising on her ribs and needs medical attention.
Protesters gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse to condemn the raid while anti-Maduro demonstrators scolded them and tussled over Venezuelan flags.
One protester managed to gain entry into the courtroom. Speaking in Spanish, the man called Mr. Maduro an illegitimate leader as guards ushered him out of the courtroom.
“I am a kidnapped president. I am a prisoner of war,” Mr. Maduro replied in Spanish.
The Maduros were whisked from the presidential palace in Caracas to a federal jail in Brooklyn over the weekend after a stunning U.S. military raid.
Prosecutors said Mr. Maduro and his wife were taken into law enforcement custody at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. Their plane landed in New York at 4:31 p.m. Saturday.
The Trump administration says Mr. Maduro is an illegitimate leader who harmed Americans through illegal activity.
“There is no war against Venezuela or its people. We are not occupying a country,” Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. “Maduro was not just an indicted drug trafficker. He was an illegitimate so-called president. He was not a head of state. For years, Maduro and his cronies have manipulated Venezuela’s electoral system to maintain their illegitimate grip on power.”
International leaders shed few tears for Mr. Maduro, citing his heavy hand in leading Venezuela.
Still, some are fretting about the nature of his capture, whether President Trump will attempt to seize Greenland or upend other countries, and whether the raid sets a poor precedent for aggressive nations such as Russia and China.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action.”
U.N. representatives from Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, pointed to reports of civilian deaths as a result of the arrest. China, which has acted aggressively toward Taiwan, decried the “illegal and bullying acts” of the U.S.
Republican lawmakers in the U.S. largely cheered the decisive action to remove Mr. Maduro and force him to face U.S. justice. Democrats said Mr. Trump should not have acted without consulting Congress for war authorization.
The raid capped months of pressure on Mr. Maduro, including Mr. Trump’s authorization of deadly airstrikes on alleged drug-running boats out of Venezuela.
Some experts questioned whether the underpinning of the actions, drug trafficking, warranted the removal of a foreign leader.
“Maduro was a brutal thug who impoverished and terrorized the Venezuelan people, and he himself is charged with being a drug trafficker, but a new offensive in the lost drug war is not a good reason for the raid,” said Jeffrey A. Singer, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute. He said Venezuela is not the major source of fentanyl that enters the U.S.
“Drug smugglers aren’t terrorists,” Mr. Singer said, “and suggesting that military action in Venezuela will ‘save hundreds of thousands of lives’ is pure fantasy detached from any serious policy analysis.”
Mr. Trump said the U.S. will be “in charge” of Venezuela, an oil-rich nation, while it sets up a new government.
U.S. stocks rose Monday in a sign that investors do not see inherent economic risks from the raid.
Oil stocks, such as Chevron and ConocoPhillips, rose after Mr. Trump said U.S. companies would play a role in rebuilding Venezuela’s infrastructure. Venezuela has the world’s largest known crude oil reserves.
Late Sunday, Mr. Trump said he spoke with oil companies before and after the military operation.
“They want to go in,” Mr. Trump said, “and they’re going to do a great job for the people of Venezuela.”
Mr. Trump’s capture of Mr. Maduro is reverberating from Cuba, whose communist government has a close relationship with Venezuela, to the Arctic island of Greenland, which Mr. Trump wants to annex for security purposes.
Greenland is an autonomous constituent country of the Kingdom of Denmark. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned Mr. Trump not to interfere with the island as the U.S. leader seeks an expansive role in the Western Hemisphere.
“I have to say this very directly to the United States: It makes absolutely no sense to talk about the need for the US to take over Greenland,” Ms. Federicksen said on social media. “The United States has no access to annex one of the three countries in the Commonwealth.”
• Vaughn Cockayne contributed this article, which is based in part on wire service reports.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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