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LAST UPDATE | 5 Jan
OUSTED VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty to drugs and weapons charges in a New York courthouse this evening.
Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who were seized by the US on Saturday in a military raid in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, appeared before Judge Alvin Hellerstein at the federal court in Manhattan.
They were indicted on four charges: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Asked how he pleaded, Maduro told the court: “I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country.”
He will return to court in March.
With updates by Jane Moore.
Good afternoon and welcome to our coverage of the developments regarding deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.
We are due to see Maduro and his wife appear in a New York federal courtroom in around two hours to face drug trafficking and other charges, some 48 hours after they were captured by the US in Caracas.
Earlier today, they were escorted off a helicopter under heavy security and taken to the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan.
In the meantime, the UN Security Council is holding an emergency session on “threats to international peace and security” at Venezuela’s request, where other countries will be able to have their say on the situation.
We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates here.
Earlier today, handcuffed Maduro and his wife Celia Flores were flanked by armed federal agents as they arrived at a Manhattan helipad having being flown from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
They were then driven to the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan in an armoured vehicle.
The UN Security Council emergency meeting on the situation in Venezuela has just begun.
The agenda for the meeting is to discuss “threats to international peace and security”.
Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, is delivering a statement on behalf of Secretary General António Guterres, who cannot be there.
The statement states that Guterres is “deeply concerned” about the possible intensification of instability in Venezuela as a result of the US actions at the weekend, along with the “potential impact on the region, and the precedent it may set for how relations between and among states are conducted”.
Guterres is also “deeply concerned that rules of international law have not been respected with regard to the 3 January military action”.
“The [UN] charter enshrines the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. The maintenance of international peace and security depends on the continued commitment of all member states to adhere to all the provisions of the charter. ”
The Security Council is now being addressed remotely by US economist and public policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs.
He says: “The issue before the Council today is not the character of the government of Venezuela. The issue is whether any member state, by force, coercion or economic strangulation, has the right to determine Venezuela’s political future or to exercise control over its affairs.
Sachs says this question goes directly to Article 2 Section 4 of the United Nations Charter, “which prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.
The Council must decide whether that prohibition is to be upheld or abandoned. Abandoning it would carry consequences of the gravest kind.
He says since 1947, US foreign policy has repeatedly employed force, covert action and political manipulation to bring about regime change in other countries, citing 70 attempted US regime change operations between 1947 and 1989.
“These practices did not end with the Cold War. Since 1989, major United States regime change operations undertaken without authorization by the Security Council have included, among the most consequential, Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria beginning in 2011 Honduras 2009, Ukraine 2014 and Venezuela from 2002 onward.”
Sachs continues:
“The methods employed are well-established and well-documented. They include open warfare, covert intelligence operations, instigation of unrest, support for armed groups, manipulation of mass and social media, bribery of military and civilian officials, targeted assassinations, false flag operations and economic warfare.
“These measures are illegal under the UN Charter, and they typically result in ongoing violence, lethal conflict, political instability and deep suffering of the civilian population.”
Sachs says that members of the Council are not called upon to judge Nicolas Maduro or to “assess whether the recent US attack and ongoing naval quarantine results in freedom or in subjugation”.
“Members of the Council are called upon to defend international law and specifically the UN Charter.”
Sachs says in order to fulfill its responsibilities under the UN Charter, the Security Council should call on the US to “immediately cease and desist from all explicit and implicit threats or use force against Venezuela”.
It should also call on the US to terminate its naval quarantine and all related coercive military measures undertaken in the absence of authorisation by the UN Security Council, and withdraw its military forces from within and along the perimeter of Venezuela, he said.
Sachs recommended that the Security Council appoint a special envoy mandated to engage relevant Venezuelan and international stakeholders and to report back within 14 days with recommendations consistent with the Charter.
“All member states should refrain from unilateral threats, coercive measures or armed actions undertaken outside the authority of the UN Security Council,” he added.
Concluding his remarks, Jeffrey Sachs said:
Peace and the survival of humanity depend on whether the United Nations Charter remains a living instrument of international law, or is allowed to wither into irrelevance. That is the choice before this Council today.
If you’re just catching up with the developments in Venezuela today, you can find a rundown on what happened, whether what the US did was illegal and what is likely to happen next here.
Protesters have gathered outside the Manhattan Federal Court ahead of Nicolas Maduro’s arraignment.
Columbia has “categorically” condemned the US’s actions in Venezuela over the weekend.
Addressing the UN Security Council, the country’s representative Leonor Zalabata said the events of 3 January saw “multiple explosions and air activity over Caracas and other areas of the country as part of a military attack carried out by the United States”.
She said this included bombings of civilian and military infrastructure which created panic amongst the population.”All of this represents clear violations of the sovereignty, political independence and the territorial integrity of Venezuela,” she said.
There is no justification whatsoever, under any circumstances, for the unilateral use of force to commit an act of aggression.
Zalabata said such actions constitute “a serious violation of international law and the United Nations Charter”, including principle of the respect for sovereignty and the full authority of states over their territory, including their natural resources.
“Defending these principles is not an option. Indeed, it’s a common obligation that we have in order to preserve international peace and security.”
Russia’s representative to the UN Security Council Vasily Nebenzya is now addressing the council to “firmly condemn the US act of armed aggression against Venezuela in breach of all international legal norms”.
The statement comes despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with the war still waging on. Two people were killed in a Russian strike on a medical facility in Kyiv overnight.
Russia remains a permanent member of the UN Security Council. There are no legal pathways to remove council members.
Nebenzya says Russia calls on the US “to immediately release” Maduro and his wife and for any conflict between the country and Venezuela to be resolved through dialogue.
“This is precisely what is enshrined in the UN Charter for purposes in the principles of which a number of states in recent years have begun to apply selectively depending upon the political landscape today.”
The Trump administration’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which the US president has repeatedly said the US needs to annex “for national security”.
Trump repeated this while speaking to reporters on Air Force One over the weekend, saying: ““We’ll worry about Greenland in about two months… let’s talk about Greenland in 20 days.”
His remarks prompted the prime minister of the autonomous Danish territory to hit back. “That’s enough now. No more pressure. No more insinuations. No more fantasies of annexation,” Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a statement.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have also criticised Trump’s continued remarks about Greenland.
You can find the latest developments here.
Mike Waltz, the US representative to the UN Security Council, has just addressed the session.
He begins by saying the US “successfully carried out a surgical law enforcement operation facilitated by the US military against two indicted fugitives of American justice: narco-terrorist, Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores”.
Waltz says Maduro is “responsible for attacks on the people of the United States, for destabilising the Western Hemisphere and illegitimately repressing the people of Venezuela”.
He quotes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and says there is “no war against Venezuela or its people”.
We are not occupying a country. This was a law enforcement operation in furtherance of lawful indictments that have existed for decades.
“The United States arrested a narco-trafficker who is now going to stand trial in the United States in accordance with the rule of law for the crimes he’s committed against our people for 15 years.”
Waltz goes on to say that capturing Maduro “was directed consistent with the President of the United States’ responsibility as commander-in-chief to protect Americans at home and abroad against a fugitive who is directly responsible for narco-terrorism that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and created destabilising violence throughout our hemisphere”
He says Maduro faces “very serious criminal charges for his involvement in a wide ranging conspiracy to conduct narco-terrorism, to traffic cocaine and other drugs and conducting international weapons trafficking”.
The overwhelming evidence of his crimes will be presented openly in US court proceedings.
Waltz says Maduro was an illegitimate president who was manipulated Venezuela’s electoral system “for years” to maintain power.
He asks: “If the UN and the United Nations in this body confers legitimacy on an illegitimate narco-terrorist and the same treatment in this Charter of a democratically-elected president or head of state, what kind of organization is this?”
He adds that over 50 countries rejected the legitimacy of Maduro’s re-election following Venezuela’s disputed elections in 2024 “and do not recognise him as Venezuela’s legitimately-elected president”.
Concluding his remarks to the UN Security Council, Mike Waltz said Donald Trump “gave diplomacy a chance” in Venezuela.
“He offered Maduro multiple off-ramps, he tried to de-escalate. Maduro refused to take them. President Trump made it clear that the narco-terrorism must stop, and yet it continued,” Waltz said.
“The United States will not waver in our actions to protect Americans from the scourge of narco-terrorism, and seeks peace, liberty and justice for the great people of Venezuela.”
Nicolas Maduro is due to appear in court in around ten minutes.
The New York Times is reporting that the ousted president will be represented in court by David Wikstrom.
Wikstrom is a court-appointed lawyer who has represented the brother of the former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted on similar charges to Maduro but pardoned by Trump last month.
Barry Pollack, a Washington-based lawyer who represented Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, will also represent Maduro in court, according to the New York Times.
Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife have just entered the courtroom in New York’s federal courthouse.
According to NBC News, he is wearing an orange shirt with a blue shirt over it and beige trousers. He put on earphones to hear the Spanish translation of the hearing.
92-year-old Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who was appointed to the federal court by then-president Bill Clinton in 1998, is presiding over the case.
The proceedings are not being televised, but there are a number of US reporters inside the courtroom for the hearing.
Nicolas Maduro has pleaded not guilty to drugs and weapons charges inside the Daniel Moynihan courthouse in Manhattan.
The deposed Venezuelan president is charged with narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Asked by the judge to confirm his name, Maduro did so. Speaking in Spanish, he told the court that he is the president of Venezuela and that he was “captured” at his home in Caracas.
“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man,” he said, before stating that he is still the president of his country.
The New York Times, who is inside the courtroom, reports that Maduro and his wife requested a consular visit, which the judge said would be arranged.
Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack told the court there are “questions about the legality of his military abduction” and that he may file motions about his role as head of a sovereign state.
He told the court that both the Maduros require medical attention, including for severe bruising on Cilia Flores.
Pollack also said he was not seeking Maduro’s release on bail at this time.
The judge said he would see the Maduros again at 11am (4pm Irish time) on 17 March before the arraignment concluded.
The 30-minute arraignment has now ended, with Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores being escorted out of the courtroom. They will now be taken back to the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.
Maduro’s lawyers will now work to put together a case to defend him, which will expectedly focus on whether his military abduction by the United States was legal to begin with.
Before Nicolas Maduro’s appearance in court, politicians in Venezuela denounced his capture in the country’s parliament, with the deposed leader’s son saying he “will return”.
The inaugural session of Venezuela’s National Assembly today saw some lawmakers chanting “Let’s go Nico”, one of the slogans of Maduro’s 2024 presidential campaign, followed by elections widely denounced as being fraudulent.
“The president of the United States, Mr Trump, claims to be the prosecutor, the judge, and the policeman of the world,” senior lawmaker Fernando Soto Rojas told his colleagues in the assembly.
“We say: you will not succeed. And we will ultimately deploy all our solidarity so that our legitimate president, Nicolas Maduro, returns victorious to Miraflores,” the presidential palace, he added.
Maduro’s son, lawmaker Nicolas Maduro Moros, vowed that his toppled father and deposed first lady Cilia Flores “will return” to Venezuela.
“Sooner or later they will be with us… They will return,” he said.
New members of Venezuela’s single-chamber parliament were chosen last May in elections boycotted by much of the opposition, leaving 256 of the 286 seats in the hands of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its allies.
Maduro’s former vice president Delcy Rodriguez is serving as interim leader with the stated support of the Venezuelan military.
The newly re-elected head of Venezuela’s parliament has vowed to explore all avenues to “bring back” ousted president Nicolas Maduro.
“My main function in the days to come… as president of this National Assembly, will be to resort to all procedures, all platforms, and all avenues to bring back Nicolas Maduro Moros, my brother, my president,” Jorge Rodriguez told politicians.
The motorcade carrying ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores making its way down the FDR Drive after leaving Manhattan Federal Court where they were arraigned.
Following today’s developments, this is what the US State Department has shared on X.
— Department of State (@StateDept) January 5, 2026
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