New York — Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro His wife, Celia Flores, appeared for the first time in Manhattan federal court on Monday after they were arrested by US forces In a military operation in Venezuela The capital is Caracas, where Maduro said: “I am innocent.”
The couple – who are being held in federal custody at MDC-Brooklyn – appeared before Judge Alvin Hellerstein. Maduro was escorted into the courtroom in shackles and orange prison slippers, sitting two seats away from his wife.
Maduro and Flores wore headphones to listen to an interpreter provided by the court.
As Maduro took his seat next to defense attorney Barry Pollack, he immediately began writing on a notepad. Flores sat next to her attorney, Mark Donnelly.
Maduro stood before the judge.
“Are you, Sir Nicolás Maduro Moros?” Hellerstein asked.
“I am the president of Venezuela,” Maduro announced through a translator. He added: “I was arrested at my home in Caracas, Venezuela,” before the judge interrupted him and told him that there would be a later time to challenge his detention.
Maduro then confirmed that he was the one the judge said.
Hellerstein read Maduro the standard rights.
“I did not know about these rights,” Maduro said through a translator. Your Majesty informs me of them now.”
“How do you defend an indictment?” Hellerstein asked.
Maduro responded: “I am innocent. I am not guilty.” I am a respectable man. “I am still the president of my country.”
“I am innocent. I am not guilty of anything stated here,” Maduro responded, through a translator, when asked to repeat his admission to the charges.
Hellerstein then turned to Maduro’s wife.
“I’m Celia Flores,” she said. “I am the First Lady of the Republic of Venezuela.”
“The purpose today is just to ask you who you are,” Hellerstein interjected. The judge then explained her rights to remain silent and to be represented by a lawyer.
“Yes, I understand that and I heard it,” Flores said.
She was asked how she defended the three charges in the indictment she faces. “Not guilty, completely innocent,” Flores responded.
Maduro and Flores are among six defendants named in a four-count indictment accusing them of conspiring with violent and dangerous drug traffickers over the past 25 years. Maduro has long denied all such accusations.
Rival groups of protesters gathered across the street from the courthouse. One holds signs urging President Donald Trump to “Release President Maduro,” and the other supports his arrest.
More people protesting what they call “unlawful kidnapping” are expected to arrive shortly before their court appearance.
The other defendants are Maduro’s son, two high-ranking Venezuelan officials and an alleged leader of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
Trump said on Saturday that the United States “successfully carried out a large-scale strike against Venezuela” in which Maduro and Flores were “arrested and flown out of the country.”
Trump said that the operation was carried out in cooperation with US law enforcement authorities. Members of Congress said the military, which sources said included the elite Delta Force, was there to support that law enforcement operation.
In a move that alarmed some observers, Trump, who campaigned under the slogan “America First” and against foreign entanglements, said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago that the United States would “run” Venezuela for an unspecified “period of time.”
He said that a team consisting of some of his government officials along with a local team in Venezuela “will run the country” because “there is no one to take charge.”
“We’re going to run it right. We’re going to run it professionally. We’re going to have the biggest oil companies in the world come in and invest billions and billions of dollars and take the money, use that money in Venezuela, and the biggest beneficiary will be the people of Venezuela,” Trump said.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has been sworn in as interim leader to lead the country after what the Venezuelan Supreme Court described as Maduro’s “kidnapping.”
Rodriguez demanded Maduro’s return and pledged to defend Venezuela against US aggression.
On Sunday, Rodriguez published a statement on social media in which she appeared to soften her tone, calling on “the US government to cooperate with us on a cooperation agenda directed toward common development within the framework of international law to promote lasting societal coexistence.”
Trump told reporters on Sunday that the United States was “responsible” for Venezuela.
The president said he had not yet spoken with Rodriguez. Asked if he wanted to, Trump said: “At the appropriate time, I will do it.”
ABC News’ Megan Mistry and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.
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