THE NEW YORK TIMES: Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan leader, and his wife pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other federal charges. “I am still president of my country,” Maduro said.
Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan leader, insisted on Monday that he was still his country’s president and had been “kidnapped” in the U.S. military raid on Caracas that captured him and his wife two days ago. Both pleaded not guilty to charges, including drug trafficking and other crimes, in a federal courtroom in Lower Manhattan.
“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty,” Mr. Maduro said through an interpreter after Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein asked him for his plea. He continued, “I am a decent man. I am still president of my country.”
Mr. Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who like her husband wore a short-sleeve navy shirt over an orange prison uniform, had a bandage on her forehead and what looked to be bruising near her right eye. She told the court that she was “not guilty, completely innocent.”
At the conclusion of the hearing, a man stood up in the gallery and told Mr. Maduro in Spanish that he would pay for his crimes. Mr. Maduro responded that he would win his freedom and declared himself “a prisoner of war.”
Their arraignment, on charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine, followed a monthslong campaign by the Trump administration to drive Mr. Maduro from power. But it could be well over a year before he and his wife face trial, and Mr. Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, told the judge there were questions about the legality of his client’s “military abduction.” Venezuela Live Updates » | Benjamin Weiser, Jonah E. Bromwich, Annie Karni and Hurubie Meko | Benjamin Weiser, Jonah E. Bromwich and Hurubie Meko reported from Lower Manhattan. Annie Karni reported from Washington. | Monday, January 5, 2026
En español:
En vivo: Maduro dice ante un tribunal de EE. UU. que fue ‘secuestrado’: Nicolás Maduro, el líder derrocado de Venezuela, y su esposa se declararon no culpables de narcotráfico y otros cargos federales. El hijo de Maduro, quien también está en la acusación, pronunció un discurso desafiante el lunes ante la Asamblea Nacional venezolana. »
