end of list<\/span><\/section>\nMaduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were brought before US District Judge Alvin K Hellerstein at 12pm (17:00 GMT) on Monday for a brief proceeding that kicks off a long legal battle over whether they can face trial in the US.<\/p>\n
Handcuffed and wearing blue jail uniforms, Maduro and his wife were led into the court by officers, and both put on headsets to hear the English-language proceeding as it was translated into Spanish.<\/p>\n
Maduro pleaded not guilty, telling the judge, \u201cI was kidnapped. I am innocent and a decent man, the president of my country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the street from the court, the police separated a small but growing group of protesters from about a dozen pro-intervention demonstrators, including one man who pulled a Venezuelan flag away from those protesting against the US abduction.<\/p>\n
The left-wing leader, his wife, son and three others could face life in prison if convicted of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tonnes of cocaine into the country. Some observers say there is no evidence linking Maduro to cartels.<\/p>\n
Maduro\u2019s lawyers said they will contest the legality of his arrest, arguing he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of a foreign state, though he is not recognised as Venezuela\u2019s legitimate leader by the US and other nations.<\/p>\n
Flores also pleaded not guilty to US charges against her during the arraignment. Hellerstein ordered the Venezuelan leader to appear in court for a hearing on March 17.<\/p>\n
\u2018Attacks\u2019 against US people<\/h2>\n Near the end of the hearing, Maduro\u2019s lawyer, Barry J Pollack, said his client \u201cis head of a sovereign state and entitled to the privilege\u201d that the status ensures.<\/p>\n
Pollack said there were \u201cquestions about the legality of his military abduction\u201d, and there will be \u201cvoluminous\u201d pretrial filings to address those legal challenges.<\/p>\n
Earlier, images showed the pair being led handcuffed and under heavy guard from a helicopter en route from a detention facility to the court, two days after they were forcibly removed from Caracas in a brazen US special forces operation.<\/p>\n
At an emergency session of the United Nations Security Council earlier on Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern that Washington\u2019s capture of Maduro violated international law.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remain deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action. The Charter enshrines the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state,\u201d Guterres said, referring to the UN\u2019s founding document.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe maintenance of international peace and security depends on the continued commitment of all member states to adhere to all the provisions of the Charter.\u201d<\/p>\n
Samuel Moncada, Venezuela\u2019s ambassador to the UN, accused the US of carrying out an illegal armed attack against his country.<\/p>\n
Venezuela was subjected to bombing, destruction of civilian infrastructure, the loss of civilian and military lives, and the \u201ckidnapping\u201d of Maduro and his wife, Moncada said.<\/p>\n
The abduction of a sitting head of state breached a core norm of international law, the personal immunity of leaders in office, he added, warning that such actions set a dangerous precedent for all countries.<\/p>\n
Russia and China, Venezuela\u2019s most powerful allies, strongly condemned Maduro\u2019s abduction and called for his release.<\/p>\n
US allies France and Colombia also notably voiced concern, saying Washington\u2019s military operation had undermined international law.<\/p>\n
The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, defended Maduro\u2019s abduction, describing it as a \u201claw enforcement operation\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States arrested a narcotrafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States,\u201d Waltz said.<\/p>\n
Waltz accused Maduro of being \u201cresponsible for attacks against the people of the United States, for destabilising the Western Hemisphere, and illegitimately repressing the people of Venezuela\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vast oil wealth<\/h2>\n All eyes are on Venezuela\u2019s response to the swiftly moving events after US President Donald Trump said late on Sunday that the US is \u201cin charge\u201d of the South American nation, which has the world\u2019s largest oil reserves.<\/p>\n
Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, meanwhile, was officially sworn in as interim president on Monday.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez, a 56-year-old labour lawyer known for close connections to the private sector and her devotion to the governing party, was sworn in by \u200bher brother, Jorge, \u200cwho is the head of the National Assembly legislature.<\/p>\n
Delcy Rodriguez initially took a defiant stand against the seizure of the president, in what some observers labelled a return to \u201cUS gunboat diplomacy\u201d. But she has now offered \u201cto collaborate\u201d with Washington.<\/p>\n
One analyst said that Venezuela\u2019s opposition appreciates the US intervention to remove Maduro from power, but is alarmed by Trump\u2019s comments about US plans to \u201crun\u201d Venezuela, apparently with members of his government.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrump doesn\u2019t recognise the decision of the Venezuelan people. We are not a colony of the US. We are an independent country,\u201d Jose Manuel Puente, a professor at the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administracion, a private university in Caracas, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to initiate a transition to democracy, to rebuild the institutions, to rebuild the economy, to rebuild the oil sector. And we don\u2019t see that from Trump until now.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018You will not succeed\u2019<\/h2>\n Venezuela\u2019s National Assembly opened on Monday with lawmakers chanting \u201cLet\u2019s go, Nico!\u201d as they denounced his abduction.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president of the United States, Mr Trump, claims to be the prosecutor, the judge, and the policeman of the world,\u201d senior lawmaker Fernando Soto Rojas told the assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe say, you will not succeed, and we will ultimately deploy all our solidarity so that our legitimate president, Nicolas Maduro, returns victorious to Miraflores\u201d, the presidential palace, he added.<\/p>\n
Rodriguez has served as Maduro\u2019s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela\u2019s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.<\/p>\n
She is part of a band of senior officials in Maduro\u2019s administration who now appear to control Venezuela, even as Trump and other US officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with their vision for the oil-rich nation.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, some 2,000 Maduro supporters, including rifle-wielding men on motorcycles, rallied in Caracas with crowds shouting and waving Venezuelan flags. The Venezuelan military, loyal to Maduro, announced it recognised Rodriguez and urged calm.<\/p>\n
The White House indicated on Sunday that it does not want regime change, only Maduro\u2019s removal and a pliant new government that will enable US companies to exploit the country\u2019s oil reserves, even if the government is filled with his former associates.<\/p>\nA man holds a picture of abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on Monday [Ronald Pena R\/EPA]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Abducted\u00a0Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro told a packed New York City courtroom on Monday that he was \u201cinnocent\u201d, a \u201cdecent man\u201d, and that he had been \u201ckidnapped\u201d, in his first public comments since the brazen US attack on his country on Saturday. Maduro, who was abducted along with his wife by US special forces from his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latin-america-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/INTERACTIVE-US-attacks-on-Venezuela-map-1767437429.png?quality=80\")
<\/p>\n![\"epa12629271](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/epa_695bfdf442fa-1767636468.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")