6.1.2026
Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges at a defiant appearance in a New York court Monday, two days after being snatched by US forces in a stunning raid on his home in Caracas.
Maduro, 63, told a federal judge in Manhattan “I’m innocent. I’m not guilty.”
Smiling as he entered the courtroom and wearing an orange shirt with beige trousers, Maduro spoke softly.
“I’m president of the Republic of Venezuela and I’m here kidnapped since January 3, Saturday,” Maduro told the court, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. “I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”
Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores likewise pleaded not guilty. The judge ordered both to remain behind bars and set a new hearing date of March 17.
The presidential couple were forcibly taken by US commandos in the early hours of Saturday in airstrikes on the Venezuelan capital backed by warplanes and a heavy naval deployment.
Thousands of people marched through Caracas in support of Maduro as his former deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as interim president.
After the raid, Trump declared that the United States was “in charge” in Venezuela and intends to take control of the country’s huge but decrepit oil industry.
The 79-year-old president also dismissed the idea of Caracas having new elections in the next month.
“We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote,” Trump told broadcaster NBC News in an interview aired Monday.
However, US House Speaker and Trump ally Mike Johnson said he thinks an election “should happen in short order” in Venezuela.
Maduro became president in 2013, taking over from his equally hardline socialist predecessor Hugo Chavez.
The United States and European Union say he stayed in power by rigging elections — most recently in 2024 — and imprisoning opponents, while overseeing rampant corruption. AFP