Venezuela Live Updates: Maduro Tells U.S. Judge He Was ‘Kidnapped’

 

Venezuela Live Updates: Maduro Tells U.S. Judge He Was ‘Kidnapped’

Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan leader, and his wife pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other federal charges. “I am still president of my country,” Maduro said.

 

Updated

Jan. 5, 2026, 2:57 p.m. ET24 minutes ago

Benjamin Weiser Jonah E. Bromwich Annie Karni and Hurubie Meko Benjamin Weiser, Jonah E. Bromwich and Hurubie Meko reported from Lower Manhattan. Annie Karni reported from Washington.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01/05/world/venezuela-maduro-trump

 

Here’s the latest.

Nicolás Maduro, the ousted Venezuelan leader, insisted on Monday that he was still his country’s president and had been “kidnapped” in the U.S. military raid on Caracas that captured him and his wife two days ago. Both pleaded not guilty in a Lower Manhattan federal courtroom to charges including narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine.

 

“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty,” Mr. Maduro said through an interpreter after Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein asked him for his plea. He continued, “I am a decent man. I am still president of my country.”

 

Mr. Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who like her husband wore a short-sleeve navy shirt over an orange prison uniform, had a bandage on her forehead and what looked to be bruising near her right eye. She told the court that she was “not guilty, completely innocent.”

 

At the conclusion of the hearing, a man stood up in the gallery and told Mr. Maduro in Spanish that he would pay for his crimes. Mr. Maduro responded that he would win his freedom and declared himself “a prisoner of war.”

 

The arraignment followed a monthslong campaign by the Trump administration to drive Mr. Maduro from power. But it could be well over a year before he and his wife face trial. Mr. Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, told the judge there were questions about the legality of his client’s “military abduction.”

 

Earlier, during a meeting in Caracas of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Mr. Maduro’s son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, who was also named in the indictment, delivered a defiant speech. He said that his father and “second mother” had been “kidnapped,” adding that the world was facing a “dangerous regression” to imperialism. The younger Mr. Maduro, who has been a member of the assembly since 2021, called on the “people of the world” to show solidarity with his family and with Venezuela.

 

He pledged his support to Venezuela’s interim leader, Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Mr. Maduro’s vice president. During a swearing-in ceremony on Monday, Ms. Rodríguez decried the “illegitimate military aggression” of the United States and said that Mr. Maduro was still the country’s president. She also said Mr. Maduro and his wife were hostages, a day after she struck a conciliatory tone and offered to work with the United States.

 

Here’s what else to know:

 

Security Council: The U.N. Security Council convened an emergency meeting to discuss the U.S. raid. Venezuela’s ambassador sat somber-faced at the start of the meeting, during which Mike Waltz, the American ambassador, said there was “no war against Venezuela or its people” and rejected accusations by other council members that U.S. actions could destabilize the region.

 

Trump's threats: President Trump reiterated on Sunday night his assertion that the U.S. government was “in charge” of Venezuela and suggested that the United States could take action against more countries, including Colombia, Mexico and the semiautonomous Danish territory of Greenland. Colombia’s president warned that any attempt to detain him would unleash popular fury, and the prime minister of Denmark, a NATO ally, urged Mr. Trump to “stop the threats.” But Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, brushed aside the remarks, saying it was “just President Trump’s manner of speaking.”

 

Congressional briefing: After Democratic lawmakers complained of not being notified about U.S. plans for Venezuela, Trump administration officials were set to provide a briefing to leaders in Congress on Monday afternoon. Read more ›

 

Venezuelan oil: At least 16 oil tankers hit by U.S. sanctions appeared to have tried to evade a major American naval blockade on Venezuela’s energy exports over the last two days, in part by disguising their true locations. Mr. Trump has made clear his desire to open up Venezuela’s vast state-controlled oil reserves to American oil companies, but U.S. intervention could prove complicated and expensive.

 

Emma Bubola contributed reporting from Buenos Aires, Farnaz Fassihi from the United Nations and Maia Coleman from Lower Manhattan.