The former dictator of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges levied against him in a New York courtroom on Monday afternoon, the first step in his historic prosecution.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who were arrested by U.S. authorities over the weekend in Caracas, made their first appearance in front of a judge in a perfunctory legal proceeding, which kicks off their respective court cases. They both pleaded not guilty to the charges.
“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I am a decent man,” Maduro told Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who oversaw the hearing.
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Their next court date is scheduled for March 17 and they will remain in custody until then.
Maduro is being represented by Barry Pollack, the lawyer who represented Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder who was charged under the Espionage Act for obtaining and publishing U.S. military secrets.
Mark Donnelly is representing Flores and during the hearing, he said she had sustained injuries during the raid that she and her husband were captured in.
A recently unsealed federal indictment charges Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and weapons charges. Flores and other senior Venezuelan officials, including Maduro’s son, are also facing charges.
They could face life in prison if convicted of the charges.
The highly unusual scene on Monday – involving the leader of a foreign country being tried in the United States – is only the beginning of what will be a closely followed, heavily scrutinized trial the likes of which haven’t been seen in decades.
In 1989, U.S. forces captured Gen. Manuel Noriega, the then-dictator of Panama, in a similar mission, though the U.S. had a military presence ahead of the raid, unlike in Venezuela this time around. Maduro and his lawyers appeared to follow Noriega’s defense, trying to argue that the mission to capture him abroad violated both international law.
“I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela,” Maduro said in court.
Saturday morning’s special forces raid on Maduro’s compound in the capital of Venezuela was the culmination of months of applying pressure on the now-former dictator, who was initially charged by the Justice Department in 2020.
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U.S. leaders have characterized the mission to arrest and bring Maduro to the United States as a law enforcement operation despite the military’s heavy involvement.
This is a breaking news story and has been updated.
