detained Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to appear in New York federal court
Nicolas Maduro, the detained President of Venezuela, is scheduled to appear before a federal judge at Manhattan’s federal court in New York on Monday to be formally informed of the charges against him.
According to American media reports, this hearing follows a special military operation in which US forces arrested Maduro in Caracas and transported him to the United States. Maduro is set to appear in court at noon local time on Monday, with his case assigned to Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
Reports add that several hours after his arrest in the early hours of Saturday, Maduro was flown to a military base in New York State and then taken with his wife, Cilia Flores, to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) office in Manhattan. After an initial interrogation, he was transferred to a detention center in Brooklyn.
US authorities on Saturday released the text of a federal indictment against Maduro. The document charges him with “drug-related terrorism” and several other accusations, including conspiracy to traffic cocaine into the United States and possession of automatic weapons and destructive devices. Maduro has previously denied all these charges.
The indictment also alleges that Maduro’s wife, his son, and several other senior Venezuelan officials face similar charges. The legal document claims the accused have cooperated since 1999 with international drug cartels, including groups in Mexico, Colombia, and within Venezuela.
Amid these developments, dozens of people protested in New York City against Maduro’s detention. Demonstrators gathered outside his detention center in Brooklyn condemning the US military operation on Venezuelan soil, calling it a “kidnapping” of their president.
Protesters chanted slogans demanding Maduro’s immediate release and an end to US interference in Venezuela’s affairs. The New York Police Department implemented extensive security measures around the detention site and deployed a large number of officers and police vehicles to control the situation.
