Ousted Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro pleaded not guilty on Monday to U.S. charges in a narco-terrorism case against him, kicking off an extraordinary legal battle with major geopolitical ramifications.

“I am innocent,” Maduro said through an interpreter. “I am not guilty. I am a decent man,” adding that he is still the president of Venezuela. He also said he had been “kidnapped” from his home in Caracas.

The U.S. accused Maduro over the weekend of using his positions in government for a quarter of a century to enrich himself and help transport cocaine into the country. The toppling of Maduro reverberated around the world and signaled President Donald Trump’s willingness to reconfigure the global order.

After Maduro was captured in the military operation early Saturday, he and his wife were transported to the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. On Monday morning, he arrived by helicopter at a Manhattan heliport before he was taken to the courthouse for a half-hour hearing where he pleaded not guilty to the four counts he faces.

Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who was also in court, pleaded not guilty to the three charges she faces. Both were wearing headphones to hear their translators. The hearing began with U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein reading the charges against Maduro and his wife.

Hellerstein, 92, is presiding over the case and would handle a trial if the case goes before a jury of New York residents. Maduro, 63, and his wife, 69, are being held without bail. Lawyers for both said they may seek bail at a later date. The judge set another hearing for March 17. A trial may not take place for a year or more.

Maduro wore a blue V-neck shirt over an orange T-shirt with tan pants and orange shoes. His feet were shackled.

“At this point in time, I only want to know one thing. Are you Nicolas Maduro Moros?“ the judge asked at the hearing in Lower Manhattan. Maduro stood as an interpreter repeated the question and the ousted president confirmed his identity. He then waived a public reading of the indictment in court.

Legal rights

Flores also stated her name and said: “I am First Lady of Venezuela.” She then declared she is “completely innocent.”

Hellerstein read Maduro his legal rights, including that he has a right to a lawyer and a right to remain silent.

Maduro entered not guilty pleas to the four charges he faces — narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns, and conspiracy to possess machine guns. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The couple “ordered kidnappings, beating, and murders against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation, including ordering the murder of a local drug boss in Caracas,” the U.S. alleges. Maduro, his wife and four others charged with them also used machine guns and “destructive devices” to further their drug crimes, according to the indictment.

Maduro was represented at the hearing by Barry Pollack, a Washington defense lawyer whose former clients include Julian Assange. Houston lawyer Mark E. Donnelly represented his wife.

The indictment alleges Maduro remained in power despite losing the 2024 election, making him the “de facto but illegitimate ruler of the country.” Maduro “sits atop a corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking,” the U.S. alleges.

Prosecutors alleged he “has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.”

Sovereign nation

Pollack said he expects “voluminous and complicated” legal filings on behalf of the defense, including that he is immune from prosecution as the leader of a sovereign nation. Maduro has denied being involved in the drug trade.

“Mr. Maduro is the head of a sovereign state, and he’s entitled to the privileges that go with that,” Pollack said. He said Maduro will also contest the circumstances of his “military abduction” by U.S. armed forces.

Pollack also said Maduro has “health and medical issues” that must be addressed. Donnelly also said that Maduro’s wife suffered “significant injuries” during the arrest, including bruised or broken ribs. In court, she appeared to have a bruise on her forehead.

The hearing lasted for about half an hour, after which Maduro and his wife were led out of the courtroom. Maduro was returned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn by motorcade.

Maduro appeared calm and respectful to the judge throughout the proceeding. He took notes on a legal pad and frequently adjusted the headphones through which an interpreter translated the proceedings. He occasionally whispered to Donnelly, sitting on his left. Donnelly is fluent in Spanish, according to his firm profile.

As Maduro prepared to be led from the courtroom after the hearing, a man in the gallery spoke to him in Spanish. Maduro responded in Spanish, saying he is a “prisionero de guerra,” or prisoner of war. The man was removed by a court officer.

At least two dozen people in Drug Enforcement Administration jackets were in the courthouse. Outside the building, at least 100 protesters and dozens of journalists gathered.

Meanwhile in Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, who was vice president under Maduro, has been sworn in as acting president. After initially describing Maduro’s capture by U.S. forces as “barbaric,” Rodríguez struck a more conciliatory tone late on Sunday, asking the U.S. to work with her country on a cooperation agenda.

Brooklyn jail

At his new temporary cell in Brooklyn, Maduro is likely being held under the jail’s most restrictive conditions. At MDC, high-risk detainees are typically placed in special housing, where confinement can stretch to 23 hours a day. Movement outside the cell is tightly controlled.

The MDC is the only federal jail in New York after the Bureau of Prisons closed Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2021 to address deteriorating conditions. Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide in the MCC in 2019.

For years, the hulking concrete jail has drawn sharp criticism from judges, lawyers and watchdogs. In 2024, one judge bluntly dubbed the conditions at New York City’s only federal jail as “dreadful in many respects.” Another described them as “dangerous, barbaric.”

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(With assistance from Jose Orozco and Myles Miller.)

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