Maduro pleads not guilty to drug-trafficking charges

NEW YORK (AP):

Nicolas Maduro declared himself the "president of my country" as he protested his capture and pleaded not guilty on Monday to the federal drug-trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power in Venezuela.

"I was captured," Maduro said in Spanish as translated by a courtroom reporter before being cut off by the judge. Asked later for his plea to the charges, he stated: "I'm innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country."

The courtroom appearance, Maduro's first since he and his wife were seized from their home in a stunning middle-of-the-night military operation, kick-starts the US government's most consequential prosecution in decades of a foreign head of state. The criminal case in Manhattan is unfolding against the diplomatic backdrop of an audacious US-engineered regime change that US President Donald Trump has said will enable his administration to "run" the South American country.

Maduro, wearing a blue jail uniform, was led into court along with his co-defendant wife just before noon for the brief, but required, legal proceeding. Both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceeding as it was translated into Spanish.

The couple was transported to the Manhattan courthouse under armed guard early Monday from the Brooklyn jail where they've been detained since arriving in the US on Saturday.

RIGHTS

As a criminal defendant in the US legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime -- including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers.

Maduro's lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.

Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega unsuccessfully tried the same defence after the US captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the US doesn't recognise Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate head of state -- particularly after a much-disputed 2024 re-election.

Venezuela's new interim president, Delcy Rodriguez, has demanded that the US return Maduro, who long denied any involvement in drug trafficking -- although late Sunday she also struck a more conciliatory tone in a social media post, inviting collaboration with Trump and "respectful relations" with the US.

Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed US hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela's rich oil and mineral resources.

A 25-page indictment made public Saturday accuses Maduro and others of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the US. They could face life in prison if convicted.

He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under US sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a licence from the Treasury Department.

Maduro, his wife and his son -- who remains free -- are charged along with Venezuela's interior and justice minister, a former interior and justice minister and Hector Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, an alleged Tren de Aragua leader who has been criminally charged in another case and remains at large.