Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are set to return to the inside a federal courtroom in New York City, marking their first public appearance in more than two months since declaring their innocence in the sprawling narco-terrorism case against them.
Maduro and Flores, who were captured in Caracas in January during a deadly U.S. military operation, pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from allegations that the ousted president and top officials in his administration steered a massive cocaine trafficking operation.
In that hearing, Maduro, speaking in Spanish, declared himself a “prisoner or war” and “a decent man.”
“I am not guilty of anything that is mentioned here,” he said.
Thursday’s hearing is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. ET.
The parties are expected to determine next steps in the case, including settling outstanding issues over how the couple can fund their legal team while facing sanctions-related restrictions. The Trump administration is moving to block the Venezuelan government from paying for Maduro’s defense, according to court filings.
Attorneys are also likely to discuss the government’s motion for a protective order involving evidence in the case.
But there are likely to be many other critical questions in the weeks and months ahead, including the central legal questions around the late-night raid to extract a head of state in another country, which could determine the fate of the charges against them.
Senior District Judge Alvin Hellerstein — who is 92 years old — is presiding over the case.
Their capture — the culmination of Donald Trump’s months-long pressure campaign to topple Maduro’s government and deploy U.S. oil companies into the country — resulted in “significant injuries” to Flores, including “severe bruising” and a possible fracture, her attorneys said in January.
Trump, now consumed by a war in Iran with apparent ambitions for U.S. involvement in Cuba, has joked about making Venezuela the 51st state while cooperating with its interim President Delcy Rodriguez.
The couple’s legal team intends to introduce “voluminous” legal issues surrounding the legality of their arrest and “military abduction,” attorneys said in January.
Maduro has filed a motion to dismiss the case altogether, alleging violations of his due process rights and right to counsel after his “abduction” by U.S. forces.
“After invading another country and forcibly bringing its sovereign head of state to the United States, the government of the United States is now actively preventing him from retaining counsel of his choice and receiving a fair defense in this Court, in violation of his Sixth Amendment and Due Process rights,” his attorneys wrote in court filings.
“Any trial that proceeds under these circumstances will be constitutionally defective and cannot result in a verdict that will withstand later challenge,” they wrote.
The office of U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton argues that Maduro’s claims that the indictment and sanctions amount to a “targeted attack” are “misleading and undermined by the facts.”
The case is similar to one brought against former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of leading a massive cocaine-trafficking operation through his nation’s military and national police force.
But Trump pardoned him in December, claiming that the case against him was a politically motivated “set up” under Joe Biden’s administration.
Federal prosecutors allege Maduro led a conspiracy to ship drugs from Venezuela to the United States via the Caribbean and Central America using fishing boats and container ships as well as clandestine airstrips and commercial airports protected by “corrupt government and military officials,” according to the indictment.
The defendants allegedly relied on “violent narco-terrorist groups” including various cartels and gangs, including Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has targeted as part of the president’s vast anti-immigration agenda.
Their alleged conspiracy “lines the pockets of Venezuelan officials and their families while also benefiting violent narco-terrorists who operate with impunity on Venezuelan soil and who help produce, protect, and transport tons of cocaine to the United States,” according to the indictment.
Since their capture, the couple has spent more than 80 days inside separate units at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal jail has detained other high-profile inmates including Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell as well as hip-hop’s Sean “Diddy” Combs.
They are expected to remain in that facility while their legal battle continues.
