{"id":229993,"date":"2026-01-06T07:37:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/229993\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T07:37:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:37:08","slug":"i-am-a-decent-man-i-am-still-president-of-my-country-nicolas-maduro-tells-us-judge-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/229993\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,\u2019 Nicol\u00e1s Maduro tells US judge \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Venezuela\u2019s<\/a> deposed dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a> told a US judge he had been kidnapped when he and his wife appeared in a federal court in New York on Monday. <\/p>\n

Mr Maduro and Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty to charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine into the US and related weapons charges.<\/p>\n

The initial appearance in a Manhattan courtroom followed the couple\u2019s dramatic seizure by US special forces<\/a> from their military compound in Caracas on Saturday following a month-long stand-off with the US administration of Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the hearing Mr Maduro, describing himself as \u201cthe president of my country\u201d, attempted to make a statement to the court about his detention. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He was cut off by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who told him \u201cthere will be time and place to get into all of this\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Maduro\u2019s lawyer, Barry Pollack, told the judge there are \u201cquestions about the legality of his military abduction\u201d and said he could file motions about his client\u2019s status as leader of a sovereign state.<\/p>\n

The accused couple entered the courtroom in shackles and prison uniform. After about 40 minutes they were remanded into custody with the next hearing set for March 17th. <\/p>\n

As they were being led away, a member of the public told Mr Maduro in Spanish he would pay for his crimes. He replied by saying he was a \u201cprisoner of war\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Maduro is the first foreign head of state to appear in a US court on drugs charges since the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 2024 and sentenced to 45 years in prison. He received a full pardon from Mr Trump in December.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday in Caracas, vice-president Delcy Rodr\u00edguez<\/a> was formally sworn in as interim president due to Mr Maduro\u2019s \u201cenforced absence\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Venezuela\u2019s acting president strikes conciliatory tone with US after Trump warning<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In a statement released beforehand she called on the US government to \u201ccollaborate with us on an agenda of co-operation oriented towards shared development within the framework of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Washington has said it will maintain an economic blockade of the country to force it into complying with its demands. <\/p>\n

In comments to reporters on Sunday night the US president said of Ms Rodr\u00edguez: \u201cIf she doesn\u2019t do what\u2019s right she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among the demands Mr Trump has made to the Chavista regime in Caracas is it must open up Venezuela\u2019s oil industry to US companies.<\/p>\n

The threat to Ms Rodr\u00edguez was just one of a series made by Mr Trump and his officials since Saturday\u2019s attack on Venezuela. They have also made menacing statements targeting Cuba, Mexico, Colombia and the Danish territory of Greenland<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0After US captures Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, could Iran\u2019s supreme leader be next?<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Colombia\u2019s president Gustavo Petro said on Monday he would \u201ctake up arms again\u201d after reporters asked Mr Trump if the US military armada amassed in the Caribbean could strike Colombia next and he responded: \u201cIt sounds good to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding on social media Mr Petro, a former leftist guerrilla, said he had removed several intelligence officers from their posts, accusing them of \u201cgiving false information against the state\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also implied US secretary of state Marco Rubio<\/a> was being misled by Colombian politicians linked to cocaine traffickers who \u201cwant a rupture in relations between the US and Colombia so that cocaine trafficking can skyrocket worldwide\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Venezuela\u2019s deposed dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro told a US judge he had been kidnapped when he and his wife…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[969,42,4320,43,92550,40,38,41,39,115,92549],"class_list":["post-229993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-new-york","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-states","tag-venezuela"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}