This livestream originally aired minutes after Maduro’s arraignment.
Firsthand reporting, directly from the courthouse.
Nicolás Maduro, the ousted leader of Venezuela, described himself as “kidnapped” and a “prisoner of war” at a federal court hearing on Monday where a judge initiated a process for a reckoning on allegations that he ran a narco-terrorism conspiracy.
Asked to verify that he is the defendant named in the indictment, Maduro responded with his former name and began to deliver a speech.
“I am here kidnapped,” Maduro said. I am here since Jan. 3, Saturday. I was captured in my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”
Interrupting him, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein told Maduro: “There will be a time and place to go into all this.”
Prompted to enter his plea a second time, Maduro added later: “I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am the still the president of my country.”
From the gallery, a 33-year-old man named Pedro Rojas shouted out in Spanish: “Never [again]!” Rojas later told reporters outside the courtroom that he had been imprisoned by Maduro’s regime.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores stand accused of conspiring to transport “thousands of tons” of cocaine into the United States from Venezuela. Flores delivered a similar plea: “Not guilty, completely innocent.” She had bandages over her right eye and forehead, injuries that her attorney said that she sustained during her “abduction.”
A reckoning over the raid that brought them to a federal courthouse in New York appears imminent. Maduro’s attorney Barry Pollack, who previously represented WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, said that he will be challenging the legality of what he described as Maduro’s “military abduction.”
Justice Department attorney Kyle Wirshba said little about the case, proceeding cautiously as he reminded the defendants of their consular rights and put on record that they were provided with Spanish to English translators.
In a 30-minute conversation, Legal AF’s Michael Popok and I described the brief but historic hearing. We also broke down the potential legal battles ahead over the raid and how the precedent of former Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega might affect it. Maduro and Flores did not apply for bail, but their attorneys reserved their rights to make an application at a later date.
Another hearing has been set for March 17.
