Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro used his first appearance in a New York federal courtroom to challenge U.S. authority, telling a judge he was unlawfully seized from Venezuela and remains the country’s legitimate leader.
Maduro pleaded not guilty before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine trafficking and weapons offenses. Speaking through an interpreter, he said he was “captured” during a military operation and declared himself innocent.
Maduro appeared with his wife, Cilia Flores, who also entered a not-guilty plea and identified herself as Venezuela’s first lady. Both are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Defense lawyer Barry Pollack said the case raises broader issues, arguing Maduro’s transfer to U.S. custody amounted to an illegal military abduction and signaling challenges to U.S. jurisdiction and claims of head-of-state immunity. Maduro further described himself as a “prisoner of war.”
Judge Hellerstein said questions about the legality of Maduro’s detention could be addressed later and outlined his constitutional rights. Maduro replied that he was learning of those rights in court.
The hearing unfolded as U.S. President Donald Trump continues to take a hard line on Venezuela, asserting U.S. control over the situation and warning of consequences if Venezuelan authorities do not cooperate. Trump has also pointed to Venezuela’s oil reserves, drawing criticism from regional leaders and analysts who say strategic and economic interests are intertwined with the prosecution.
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And indeed he is right. He is still the president of Venezuela until he’s not
Does The US have the authority to invade and take over another country?
They openly saying they want to take over Cuba, Columbia, Mexico and Greenland. How can a country be allowed to state the western hemisphere is theirs and independent countries are not allowed to trade with nations they do not like because it doesn’t benefit America, only to then take invade and take the leader and wife for “not behaving”.
Everything to get to this point been the so shit, and there still no evidence of the drugs after all the killing the 2 people that survived one of the airstrikes on the 16th October both the Ecuadorian and Colombian where set free since there was no evidence. Venezuela always been stated as little to no drug export so it’s really interesting how they not only Abducted Maduro but they also took his wife to trial them in an American court I would love to see this case because how they delt with everything it’s definitely could be the funniest case in a long while
No you are not the President you lost the elections and you seized power and exiled the opposition…..You gave drug cartels green lights to do business from your local ports….then you further anger and scared the crap out of the US by heaving military and major oil deals with their enemies…..It’s just the facts…..
There is an urgent and unmistakable danger confronting the Caribbean basin, Latin America, and the African continent. The region must be on maximum alert in the wake of Donald Trump’s blatant assault on Venezuelan sovereignty—an action that saw the illegal removal, kidnapping, and foreign detention of Venezuela’s lawfully elected president and his wife. This is not diplomacy. This is imperial aggression.
What we are witnessing today bears disturbing and undeniable parallels to the crimes of the European bandits of the Middle Passage and colonial era. Those forces did not arrive on African shores to trade or cooperate; they came to plunder, rape, enslave, and murder, leaving behind centuries of devastation. In the 21st century, history is being replayed under a different flag, led by the same hegemonic mindset that engineered the greatest human catastrophe known to mankind.
Trump’s actions are not isolated or accidental. They are part of a long, violent tradition of domination, regime change, and economic strangulation imposed on Black and Brown nations that dare to chart an independent path. Venezuela today is the warning shot. Tomorrow, it could be any Caribbean state, any Latin American nation, or any African country that refuses to bow.
The Caribbean, Latin America, and Africa must wake up, open their eyes, and read the signs clearly. Disunity is vulnerability. Silence is complicity. History teaches us that when imperial forces advance unchecked, enslavement—whether physical, economic, or political—soon follows.
This moment demands regional unity, vigilance, and resistance. If we fail to stand together now, we risk becoming the next victims of a modern form of colonization, executed with sanctions, coups, prisons, and propaganda instead of chains—but just as destructive.
The warning could not be clearer. Ignore it at our peril.
Blah blah blah.
Take y’all focus off of trump and what he’s doing in Venezuela for a minite. Y’all are too emotional.
I’m not a trump fan, but the question is, where do Antigua fit into all this and where is the greener pastures for us coming out of this?
That’s the more serious question here.
Trump is gonna do what he’s always done, but what’s the relationship focus for the leaders of the Carribean right now when it comes to the US, not just Trump.
Black people get too damn emotional and in their feelings, that’s our problem, and it leads us to missing our windows of opportunity a lot of times.
We are busy taking every one in, and leave no room for ourselves.
Yes we are kind and loving, but to what point.
We need to learn how to strategically pick the correct situation for us, and leave all the emotions out the damn door.
Do we have leaders who are tough enough to understand that, or are they still yearning for their mothers or fathers love that they didn’t get from childhood.
Wake up people..those days of ” I’m my brothers keeper” are gone.
Put on y’all big boy pants and get in the big league. The Carribean has never belonged to us, we were brought here, but how are we going to come out on the winning side?
The Carribean has not been a zone of peace for decades now.. wake up..time to run a winning race.
Pick a bloody side..because the Chinese, Russians, and the Middle East have no better intentions for us.
PICK A DAMN SIDE YOU FOOLS.
THIS FENCE STRADDLING IS KILLING Y’ALL.