Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his spouse Cilia Flores are set to appear in a federal Manhattan court on Monday, as confirmed by a court spokesperson. The hearing is slated for Noon local time (17:00 GMT), according to reports from CBS News.
Following the couple’s dramatic apprehension, a federal indictment accusing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, his wife, and four others of narco-terrorism conspiracy and other offenses was unsealed and made public online by US Attorney General Pam Bondi on Saturday. Alongside the narco-terrorism conspiracy charge, the indictment includes allegations of cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess such weaponry.
Currently, Maduro and Flores are reportedly being detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility in Brooklyn, New York. New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani shared that he had been briefed on the capture of Maduro and his wife, and their intended detention in federal custody in New York City.
Reports suggest that President Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores were apprehended in a high-stakes US military operation that resulted in the reported deaths of around 40 individuals, including civilians and military personnel, according to a senior Venezuelan official. The elite Delta Force soldiers seized the Venezuelan leader and his wife from their heavily-guarded residence within a military base while they were asleep.
Subsequently, the couple was extracted via a US military helicopter and transported to the USS Iwo Jima, a US naval vessel in the Caribbean, before being flown to the US. Their arrival occurred last night, local time, at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Orange County, New York, where a group of individuals was seen disembarking from the plane, one of whom has been identified by US TV networks as Maduro.
Amidst these developments, Delcy Rodriguez, former vice president and now acting president of Venezuela, condemned the US for Maduro’s arrest, labeling it as a violation of international law and demanding his immediate release. Rodriguez, who also holds positions as the minister for finance and oil, emphasized the need for unity among the nations in the region to prevent similar actions against any country, denouncing the use of force to subjugate the will of the people.
