{"id":176184,"date":"2026-03-26T16:29:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/176184\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:29:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:29:07","slug":"ousted-venezuelan-dictator-nicolas-maduro-returns-to-nyc-court-as-dueling-protests-clash-outside","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/176184\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro returns to NYC court as dueling protests clash outside"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/03\/us-news\/maduro-was-vice-president-when-president-hugo-chavez-died\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro <\/a>\u2014 wearing a tan jail jumpsuit and black glasses\u2014 returned to a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/26\/us-news\/venezuelan-dictator-nicolas-maduro-heads-to-nyc-court-for-first-time-since-stunning-arrest-on-drug-trafficking-charges\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manhattan court Thursday to face historic drug trafficking charges<\/a> as dueling protesters clashed outside.<\/p>\n<p>The toppled strongman, 63, calmly jotted down notes during his first appearance in court since January, where he had defiantly claimed that the US military had \u201ckidnapped\u2019\u2019 him.<\/p>\n<p>Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro returned to a Manhattan court Thursday to face historic drug trafficking charges on Thursday, March 26, 2026. GC Images<\/p>\n<p>Before the hearing, small groups of both pro and anti-Maduro protesters gathered outside the courthouse in Manhattan. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>A courtroom sketch of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores attending their arraignment to face federal drug trafficking charges in Manhattan, New York on Jan. 5, 2026. REUTERS<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors and lawyers for Maduro and his wife, 69-year-old Celia Flores, are expected to grapple during the hearing over who will pay Maduro\u2019s legal fees.<\/p>\n<p>Maduro\u2019s camp says that Venezuela\u2019s government should be able to pay for his defense, but the US government has yet to hand over a waiver exempting them from US sanctions.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the latest on Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s capture:<\/p>\n<p>Before the hearing, small groups of both pro and anti-Maduro protesters gathered outside the courthouse. One member of the anti-Maduro held up a sign saying \u201cMaduro, Rot in Prison,\u201d while the pro-Maduro crew held Venezuelan flags and signs saying \u201cFree President Maduro.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Both Maduro and his wife remain jailed at the Brooklyn Detention Center. US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein has yet to set a trial date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicol\u00e1s Maduro \u2014 wearing a tan jail jumpsuit and black glasses\u2014 returned to a Manhattan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[419,57,9,15862,56,63,65,64,4648,42364,58],"class_list":["post-176184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-courts","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-protests","tag-us-capture-of-nicolas-maduro","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}