{"id":23442,"date":"2026-01-05T20:54:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/01\/05\/maduro-says-he-was-kidnapped-pleads-not-guilty-in-new-york-federal-court\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T20:54:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:54:18","slug":"maduro-says-he-was-kidnapped-pleads-not-guilty-in-new-york-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2026\/01\/05\/maduro-says-he-was-kidnapped-pleads-not-guilty-in-new-york-federal-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Maduro says he was \u2018kidnapped,\u2019 pleads not guilty in New York federal court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \t\t\t                       \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Ousted Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Monday, his first hearing after being captured by the United States military last Saturday in Caracas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cI am not guilty,\u201d Maduro said after being read a summary of the charges against him, U.S. media outlets reported. \u201cI am a decent man. I am still the president of my country,\u201d he added, stating that he had been \u201ckidnapped\u201d and calling himself \u201ca prisoner of war.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    Maduro\u2019s wife, Cilia Flores, also pleaded not guilty. Flores had bandages and bruising on her face, the media reported.<\/p>\n<p>    The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has filed charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and firearms offenses against Maduro, Flores, and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    The indictment alleges a decades-long scheme involving Venezuelan officials and \u201cnarco-terrorist groups,\u201d with charges stemming from alleged involvement in trafficking tons of cocaine into the United States and using machine guns and destructive devices.<\/p>\n<p>    After the hearing, Maduro said, \u201cIn the name of God, I will be free.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>    Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the Venezuelan leader\u2019s next appearance in court will be March 17 at 11 a.m., local time.<\/p>\n<p>    The U.S. military intervention in Venezuela    On Saturday morning, the United States staged a military intervention in Venezuela in which they captured President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    At least 80 people were killed, according to the New York Times. Thirty-two victims were Cuban members of Maduro\u2019s security team, Havana confirmed.<\/p>\n<p>    A few hours after the operation, U.S. President Donald Trump held a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, where he announced that his country would \u201crun Venezuela until such time as we can have a safe, proper, and judicious transition.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cWe are ready to stage a second and much larger attack if we need to do so,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, who until now was the Venezuelan vice president, was sworn in as \u201cacting president\u201d on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>    \u201cShe\u2019s essentially willing to do what we think is necessary to make Venezuela great again,\u201d Trump told the press on Saturday. In an interview with The Atlantic on Sunday, Trump said that if Rodr\u00edguez \u201cdoesn\u2019t do what\u2019s right,\u201d she would \u201cpay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ousted Venezuelan president Nicol\u00e1s Maduro pleaded not guilty in a New York court on Monday, his first hearing after being captured by the United States military last Saturday in Caracas.\u00a0 \u201cI am not guilty,\u201d Maduro said after being read a summary of the charges against him, U.S. media outlets reported. \u201cI am a decent man. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23443,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,330,7102,306],"tags":[596,6965,7101,904],"class_list":["post-23442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-international-relations","category-nicolas-maduro","category-nyc-court","category-world","tag-international-relations","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-nyc-court","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}