Maduro Says He Is a Prisoner of War, Not a Defendant. The Words Matter.

 

Maduro Says He Is a Prisoner of War, Not a Defendant. The Words Matter.

 

His simple statement in federal court was aimed directly at contradictions in the Trump administration’s actions in the Caribbean.

 

Hurubie Meko

By Hurubie Meko

Jan. 5, 2026

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/05/world/americas/maduro-court-appearance-pow.html

 

Nicolás Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan leader who pleaded not guilty to federal charges in a Manhattan courthouse on Monday, was insistent that he was not a common criminal defendant, but a “prisoner of war.”

 

Mr. Maduro was sending a pointed message: that the Special Forces raid on his compound in Venezuela on Saturday was not a law enforcement operation, as the Trump administration has argued, but a military action.

 

Mr. Maduro has been charged with narco-terrorism and conspiring to import cocaine. On Monday, as he was being arraigned by the judge overseeing the case, Alvin K. Hellerstein, Mr. Maduro insisted that he is the president of Venezuela and said that he had been “kidnapped.”

 

Mr. Maduro is not the first criminal defendant to make such a claim, and it likely will have little impact on his case, said Daniel C. Richman, a Columbia Law School professor who worked as a federal prosecutor in Manhattan.

 

If a person is a prisoner of war, international law and the Geneva Convention dictate his or her treatment, Mr. Richman said.

 

A prisoner of war is a legal combatant — including members of the armed forces, militia or volunteer corps — who is captured and detained in a conflict. They do not face trials merely for being members of a hostile force.

 

According to the Geneva Convention, a prisoner of war, when questioned, “is bound to give only his surname, first names and rank, date of birth, and army, regimental, personal or serial number, or failing this, equivalent information.”

 

Although a prisoner of war’s movements may be limited, they may not be held in close confinement, unless necessary for their safety, according to the convention.

 

They are generally released at the end of a conflict, rather than being sentenced to a defined sentence by a judge. And, crucially, they do not face any accusation of personal guilt.

 

A criminal defendant faces an accusation of personal wrongdoing and a trial under civilian laws.

 

In Manhattan, if a federal defendant is not afforded bail, he is held at the troubled Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn while awaiting trial. The conditions at the lockup have been so grave that a judge in 2024 refused to send a man convicted in a drug case there while awaiting sentencing.

 

Mr. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are among about 1,300 people being held in the hulking facility, according to the facility’s website, and their cases could take years to work through the courts.

 

In the hours after news broke that Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores had been snatched from Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, in an operation by Army Delta Force commandos, questions rose about the nature of the action, which was taken without congressional approval.

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Mr. Trump argued that the operation was designed to assist federal law enforcement after a criminal indictment five years ago in Manhattan. The administration pointed to the 1989 capture of Gen. Manuel Noriega in Panama on federal drug-trafficking charges as precedent.

 

On Saturday, Mr. Rubio and Mr. Trump described the mission as a law enforcement operation rather than a military action.

 

But the administration has at times also described its actions regarding Venezuela in the context of war. For months, Mr. Trump has directed a military campaign targeting boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean that he said were carrying drugs, in an effort to pressure Venezuela and Mr. Maduro.

 

There have been dozens of lethal boat attacks over the past four months, operations that many legal experts call murders or war crimes. The administration says it has intelligence linking the boats to drug trafficking but has not publicly presented evidence.

 

A secret Justice Department memo justifying the strikes as lawful depends on the idea that the United States and its allies are legally in a state of armed conflict with drug cartels.

 

The United States amassed thousands of troops and a dozen warships in the Caribbean. The Trump administration announced a blockade of oil tankers sailing to and from Venezuela.

 

In answer, Mr. Maduro ordered his navy to escort ships carrying petroleum products.

 

Through it all, the administration asserted that Mr. Maduro was an illegitimate president who was also a “narco-terrorist” — connecting him to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that the Trump administration designated as a terrorist organization last year. It is a claim that U.S. intelligence agencies have contradicted.

 

Even if Mr. Maduro raises international law or claims of immunity for being a head of state, his case will be decided as a criminal case, Mr. Richman said.

 

Both the Trump administration and Mr. Maduro are using words that they believe will communicate with the world, Mr. Richman said. Throughout Monday’s hearing, Judge Hellerstein interrupted Mr. Maduro’s speeches about the legality of his capture, telling him, “There will be time and place to get into all of this.”

 

Mr. Richman said that the ousted Venezuelan leader’s actions are telling.

 

“A fundamental assumption of criminal cases is that the defendant will, at least provisionally, admit to the jurisdiction of the court and comport himself accordingly,” Mr. Richman said. “And when you have somebody who completely resists that, it could be pretty obstructive.”

 

Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney's office and state courts.