Venezuelan President, Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking and other charges Monday before a judge in a federal courthouse in lower Manhattan.
They are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after being captured by U.S. forces amid an attack President Trump described as “a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader,” following months of military buildup.
“We’re in charge” of Venezuela right now, Mr. Trump said Sunday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signaled that the U.S. wouldn’t directly govern Venezuela but would “exert tremendous leverage” through an “oil quarantine.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “President Trump sets the terms.”
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez was sworn in as acting president on Monday.
Mr. Trump has once again called for a U.S. takeover of Greenland and has threatened U.S. action against Colombia and Cuba.
U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz told the United Nations on Monday that “we are not occupying a country,” reiterating Rubio’s comments over the weekend that “there is no war against Venezuela or its people.”
“This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades,” Waltz said, according to the readout. “The United States arrested a narcotrafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States in accordance with the rule of law for the crimes he’s committed against our people for 15 years.”
Waltz compared the operation to the 1989 action against Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
“This law enforcement action was directed consistent with the President of the United States’ responsibility as Commander in Chief to protect Americans at home and abroad, against a fugitive who is directly responsible for narco-terrorism that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and created destabilizing violence throughout our hemisphere,” Waltz said.
Maduro said in federal court Monday in lower Manhattan “I’m not guilty.”
“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty — I’m a decent man,” Maduro said through an interpreter, adding that he is “still president of my country.”
His wife also pleaded not guilty to federal drug trafficking and weapons charges before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
The two were transported under heavy security via helicopter from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn to a Manhattan heliport and taken by motorcade to the courthouse hours before the proceedings. (CBS News)
