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Fallen Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro He declared himself “innocent” and an “honest man” as he pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking charges in a US court on Monday.
“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am an honest man, the president of my country,” Maduro told a judge.
Maduro made his first appearance in a US court on Monday for the narcoterrorism charges used by the Trump administration to justify his capture and transfer to New York.
Maduro, dressed in a blue prison uniform, and his wife were taken to court around noon for a brief but necessary legal proceeding that will likely spark a protracted legal battle over whether he can be tried in the United States. Both put on headphones to hear the procedure in English as it was translated into Spanish.
The couple was transported under armed guard early Monday from the Brooklyn jail where they are being held to a Manhattan courthouse.
The trip was quick. A motorcade carrying Maduro left the prison around 7:15 a.m. ET and headed to a nearby sports field, where Maduro slowly walked toward a waiting helicopter. The helicopter flew over New York Harbor and landed at a Manhattan heliport, where Maduro, limping, was loaded into an armored vehicle.
A few minutes later, the law enforcement caravan was in a garage in the courthouse complex, right next to where US President Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.
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As a criminal defendant in the US justice system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime – including the right to a trial before a jury of ordinary New Yorkers. But it will also be almost – but 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 Noriegaun successfully attempted the same defense after his capture by the United States during a similar military invasion in 1990. But the United States does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate head of state of Venezuela – especially after a very controversial re-election in 2024.
Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the United States fire Maduro, who has long denied any involvement in drug trafficking — although on Sunday evening she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, calling for collaboration with Trump and “respectful relations” with the United States.
Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed that U.S. hostility was motivated by covetousness for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.
The United States captured Maduro and his wife in a military operation on Saturday.capturing them from their homes on a military base. Trump said US would ‘show up’ Venezuela temporarily, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday he would not govern the country on a day-to-day basis except by enforcing the existing “oil quarantine.”
Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to further expand American power in the Western Hemisphere.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombian President Gustavo Petro “a sick man who likes to make cocaine and sell it to the United States. And he’s not going to do that for very long.”
He called on Venezuelan Rodriguez to provide “full access” to her country or face the consequences.
A 25-page indictment unsealed Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States. They face life in prison if found guilty.
He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to withdraw money from them without first obtaining a license from the Treasury Department.
While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment released in April, drawing on input from all 18 intelligence agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.
Maduro, his wife and his son – who remains at large – are charged alongside Venezuela’s interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister, and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who was criminally charged in a separate case and remains at large.
Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering the kidnapping, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or who compromised their drug trafficking. This included the murder of a local drug boss in Caracas, according to the indictment.
Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro’s wife, according to the indictment.
Maduro’s lawyer helped free Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Maduro retained Barry J. Pollack, a Washington-based lawyer known for securing the release of Assange and securing the acquittal of former Enron accountant Michael Krautz.
Pollack, a partner at the Harris, St. Laurent & Wechsler law firm, negotiated Assange’s 2024 plea deal, allowing him to be released immediately after he pleaded guilty to a charge of espionage for obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets.
Krautz, acquitted of federal fraud charges in 2006 after a hung jury the previous year, was one of the only Enron executives whose case ended in a not guilty verdict. Nearly two dozen other executives have been convicted of wrongdoing in connection with the collapse of the energy trading giant.
Pollack also helped secure the exoneration of Martin Tankleff, a Long Island man who spent 17 years in prison for the murder of his parents before his conviction was overturned.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
