NEW YORK – Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is scheduled to make a significant court appearance in the United States on Monday, marking his first since being charged with narco-terrorism. These charges, brought during the Trump administration, served as the basis for his capture and extradition to New York.
Maduro, accompanied by his wife, is expected to appear before a judge at noon in a procedural hearing. This initial court session may set the stage for an extensive legal battle over the jurisdictional question of whether he can be tried in the U.S.
Both will be transported from a detention facility in Brooklyn to a courthouse in Manhattan, notably close to where former President Donald Trump faced conviction in 2024 for business record falsification.
As a defendant in the U.S. judicial system, Maduro will be granted the same legal rights as any other accused individual, including the right to a jury trial. However, his case is distinctive due to its high-profile nature.
Maduro’s defense team is anticipated to challenge the legality of his arrest, asserting that he is entitled to immunity as a sovereign head of state.
This defense was similarly employed by Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega following his capture by U.S. forces in a 1990 military operation. Nevertheless, the U.S. government does not acknowledge Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, especially after his contentious 2024 reelection.
Venezuela’s new interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has demanded that the U.S. 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 U.S.
Before his capture, Maduro and his allies claimed U.S. hostility was motivated by lust for Venezuela’s rich oil and mineral resources.
The U.S. seized Maduro and his wife in a military operation Saturday, capturing them in their home on a military base. Trump said the U.S. would “run” Venezuela temporarily, but Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that it would not govern the country day-to-day other than enforcing an existing ” oil quarantine.”
Trump suggested Sunday that he wants to extend American power further in the western hemisphere.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, he called Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, “a sick man who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States. And he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
He called on Venezuela’s Rodriguez to provide “total access” to her country, or else face consequences.
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 U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.
It wasn’t clear as of Sunday whether Maduro had hired a U.S. lawyer yet.
He and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without first securing a license from the Treasury Department.
While the indictment against Maduro says Venezuelan officials worked directly with the Tren de Aragua gang, a U.S. intelligence assessment published in April, drawing on input from the intelligence community’s 18 agencies, found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government.
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.
Among other things, the indictment accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders of those who owed them drug money or undermined their drug trafficking operation. That included a local drug boss’ killing in Caracas, the indictment said.
Maduro’s wife is also accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between “a large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office, resulting in additional monthly bribes, with some of the money going to Maduro’s wife, according to the indictment.
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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kansas. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington, Darlene Superville aboard Air Force One and Joshua Goodman in Miami contributed to this report.
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