Former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro maintained his innocence before a Manhattan federal judge on Monday, insisting he was forcibly seized from his home in Caracas and describing his arrest as an illegal abduction, two days after United States military forces conducted a dramatic raid on Venezuelan soil that has sent shockwaves through international diplomacy and reignited debates over sovereignty in Latin America.
Appearing in the New York courtroom dressed in an orange shirt and beige trousers, the 63-year-old ousted leader smiled briefly as he entered before addressing the court in a soft voice. Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, he told the judge, “I’m innocent. I’m not guilty.”
“I’m president of the Republic of Venezuela and I’m here kidnapped since January 3, Saturday,” Maduro declared. “I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.”
The courtroom hearing represented a historic moment in hemispheric relations, marking the first time a sitting leader from the Americas has been seized by United States forces in decades. Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who was arrested alongside him, also entered a plea of not guilty. The presiding judge ordered both to remain in custody pending further proceedings and scheduled the next hearing for March 17.
According to accounts that emerged over the weekend, Maduro and Flores were forcibly removed from their residence in the Venezuelan capital during the early hours of Saturday morning. The operation involved United States commandos supported by airstrikes, warplanes, and a substantial naval deployment off the coast of Venezuela. Details surrounding the precise nature of the raid have continued to surface, with officials in Havana reporting on Monday that 32 Cuban nationals were killed during the operation.
United States Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that close to 200 personnel participated in the surprise raid, which he described as a precision operation. American officials reported some injuries among their forces but no fatalities.
The arrests have triggered significant political upheaval in Venezuela. Within hours of the raid, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Caracas in support of Maduro. His former deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, was quickly sworn in as interim president, a move that drew immediate condemnation from opposition figures.
María Corina Machado, the country’s opposition leader who recently received the Nobel Peace Prize, issued a blistering statement against Rodríguez from an undisclosed location. Speaking in her first public remarks since the weekend events, Machado told Fox News broadcaster Sean Hannity that Rodríguez was “rejected” by the Venezuelan people and described her as “one of the main architects of torture, persecution, corruption, narcotrafficking.”
Machado, who left Venezuela under cover last month to accept her Nobel Peace Prize, also said she intends to return home “as soon as possible.”
In the wake of the operation, United States President Donald Trump declared that his administration was “in charge” in Venezuela and outlined intentions to assume control of the country’s vast but deteriorating oil industry. Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest proven oil reserves, a resource that has been central to the nation’s economy since the mid-20th century but has suffered from decades of mismanagement and underinvestment.
The 79-year-old Trump also dismissed suggestions that new elections should be held in Venezuela within the coming month. In an interview aired Monday by NBC News, he stated, “We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote.”
However, not all voices within the American political establishment agreed. United States House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Trump ally, countered that he believes an election “should happen in short order” in Venezuela, signalling potential divisions within Washington over the next steps in the crisis.
Maduro assumed Venezuela’s presidency in 2013 following the death of Hugo Chávez, the charismatic leftist leader who had governed the country since 1999 and fundamentally reshaped its political and economic landscape through his Bolivarian Revolution. Under Chávez, Venezuela underwent sweeping nationalisations, implemented extensive social programmes funded by oil revenues, and adopted an openly anti-American foreign policy stance that made the country a symbolic leader of Latin American resistance to United States influence.
When Maduro took power, he inherited both Chávez’s political machinery and his economic model. But unlike his predecessor, Maduro lacked the personal charisma and political acumen that had sustained Chávez through various crises. Over the following decade, Venezuela descended into one of the worst humanitarian disasters in modern Latin American history, marked by hyperinflation, widespread shortages of food and medicine, and the exodus of more than seven million Venezuelans who fled the country.
The United States and the European Union have long maintained that Maduro retained power through electoral fraud and systematic repression. International observers have raised serious questions about the integrity of multiple elections held under his administration, most recently the 2024 presidential contest, which opposition figures and many foreign governments refused to recognise as legitimate. Reports from human rights organisations have documented the imprisonment of political opponents, the silencing of independent media, and the use of security forces to crush dissent.
Allegations of corruption have also dogged Maduro’s administration, with multiple investigations pointing to embezzlement schemes involving state oil company revenues and humanitarian aid. Additionally, United States prosecutors have long accused senior Venezuelan officials of colluding with drug trafficking organisations, transforming the country into a key transit point for cocaine moving from South America toward North American markets.
The crisis now leaves Venezuela’s approximately 30 million people facing profound uncertainty about their future. For a quarter of a century, the country has been governed by leftist administrations that promised to redistribute wealth and empower the poor. Instead, the nation has witnessed the collapse of its economy, the erosion of democratic institutions, and the disintegration of public services.
Following the initial shock of the raid, the Trump administration appeared to shift toward a pragmatic approach. The American president indicated a willingness to work with Rodríguez and the remaining members of Maduro’s former government, contingent upon their compliance with United States demands regarding oil production and distribution.
After an initially hostile response to her sudden elevation, Rodríguez signalled openness to “cooperation” with Washington, suggesting that Venezuela’s new leadership may be seeking to avoid further confrontation.
Yet the path forward remains fraught with danger. Brian Naranjo, a former United States diplomat who served in Venezuela before being expelled by Maduro in 2018, expressed deep concern about the country’s trajectory. “I have not been so worried about the future of Venezuela, ever,” he told the French news agency AFP.
Naranjo, who served as deputy head of the United States mission to Caracas from 2014 to 2018, warned that internal rivalries within the Venezuelan government could trigger further instability. He identified two figures who might challenge Rodríguez’s authority: Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello, a powerful figure within the ruling party with strong ties to the military and security apparatus, and Jorge Rodríguez, Delcy Rodríguez’s own brother, who serves as president of Venezuela’s National Assembly.
“Delcy had better be sleeping with one eye open right now because right behind her are two men who would be more than happy to cut her throat and take control themselves,” Naranjo said, highlighting the cutthroat nature of Venezuelan politics.
“There’s a very real possibility that things are going to get much, much worse in Venezuela before they get better,” he added.
The operation in Caracas represents the latest example of Trump’s increasingly assertive foreign policy, which has alarmed observers both domestically and internationally. Critics within the United States have accused the president of accumulating unprecedented power at home, and his actions abroad appear to reflect a similar disregard for established norms and conventions.
On Sunday, Trump declared that communist Cuba was “ready to fall” and repeated his controversial claim that Greenland, a self-governing territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, should come under United States control. These statements have rattled European allies and raised questions about the direction of American diplomacy.
Brian Finucane of the International Crisis Group told AFP that Trump “seems to be disregarding international law altogether” in his handling of the Venezuelan situation. He further suggested that the operation may have violated not only international statutes but also United States domestic law, though he did not elaborate on specific legal provisions.
The raid on Caracas has reignited longstanding debates about American interventionism in Latin America, a region that experienced numerous United States military incursions and covert operations throughout the 20th century. From the overthrow of Guatemalan president Jacobo Árbenz in 1954 to the invasion of Panama in 1989 to remove Manuel Noriega, Washington has a history of using force to remove leaders it deemed hostile or threatening to American interests.
Venezuela itself has been a focal point of tensions for more than two decades. The Chávez government survived a brief coup in 2002 that was widely believed to have received backing from Washington. In subsequent years, the United States imposed escalating sanctions on Venezuela, targeting individuals, companies, and eventually entire sectors of the economy in an effort to pressure the government.
Under the first Trump administration from 2017 to 2021, Washington recognised opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president after he declared himself interim leader in 2019. However, that strategy ultimately failed to dislodge Maduro, who retained the loyalty of the military and key state institutions. Guaidó’s parallel government gradually lost credibility and support, both domestically and internationally.
The current situation represents a dramatic escalation from the policies pursued during Trump’s first term. Rather than relying on sanctions, diplomatic pressure, or support for opposition movements, the administration has opted for direct military action to remove a foreign leader.
The international response to the raid has been mixed. While some governments that have long opposed Maduro’s rule have remained silent, others have expressed alarm at the precedent set by the operation. Regional organisations, including several Latin American blocs, have yet to issue formal statements, reflecting the complex political landscape in a region where anti-American sentiment coexists with widespread frustration over Venezuela’s destabilising influence on neighbouring countries.
Cuba’s announcement that 32 of its citizens were killed during the raid adds another layer of complexity. Havana has been Venezuela’s closest ally for decades, with thousands of Cuban doctors, teachers, and security advisers working in the country as part of a cooperation agreement. The presence of Cuban nationals in Venezuela has long been a source of controversy, with critics alleging that Cuban intelligence operatives have helped Maduro maintain control.
As the legal proceedings against Maduro and Flores move forward in New York, questions remain about the charges they face and the evidence that prosecutors will present. United States authorities have not yet disclosed the specific drug trafficking allegations, though previous indictments of Venezuelan officials have outlined elaborate schemes involving partnerships with Colombian guerrilla groups and Mexican cartels.
The case will likely become a focal point for debates about international jurisdiction, state sovereignty, and the limits of American power. Legal experts have noted that the circumstances of Maduro’s arrest may present challenges for prosecutors if defense attorneys argue that he was illegally seized in violation of international law.
Meanwhile, Venezuela’s approximately 30 million people wait anxiously to see whether the dramatic events of recent days will bring relief from years of suffering or plunge their country into further chaos. With competing claims to authority, external intervention, and deep-seated internal divisions, the nation stands at a crossroads whose outcome will shape not only Venezuela’s future but also the broader dynamics of power and sovereignty in the Western Hemisphere.
