Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro is making his first appearance in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.
Maduro appeared at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the US.
Alongside his wife, the couple were transported under armed guard early on Monday from the Brooklyn jail where they have been detained to a Manhattan courthouse.
The trip was swift. A motorcade carrying Maduro left jail around 7.15am and made its way to a nearby athletic field, where Maduro slowly made his way to a waiting helicopter.
The chopper flew across New York harbour and landed at a Manhattan heliport, where Maduro, limping, was loaded into an armoured vehicle.
A few minutes later, the law enforcement caravan was inside a garage at the courthouse complex, just around the corner from the one where Donald Trump was convicted in 2024 of falsifying business records.
As a criminal defendant in the US legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as any other person accused of a crime — including the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers.
But he will also be nearly — but not quite — unique.
Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega unsuccessfully tried the same defence after the US captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990.
But the US does not recognise Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.
