Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores appeared this Thursday at the US Southern District Court in lower Manhattan for the second hearing since their extraction in January, this time to argue that the US government\u2019s refusal to let Venezuela foot their legal bill amounts to a constitutional violation. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said he wouldn\u2019t dismiss the case, but no decision was taken over the issue of Maduro\u2019s lawyer fees.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Outside, in the street, New York was doing what New York does, moving fast and with indifference, while dozens of people brought twenty-five years worth of receipts to show to a multitude of pro-Maduro advocates and those leaving the courthouse. This is what I saw.<\/p>\n
On the way to 500 Pearl Street, I passed two men wearing matching grey Nike tech sets<\/a>, the now infamous outfit that Maduro was wearing in the first image after his extraction. They weren\u2019t there for the protest, surprisingly, but your brain does what it does.<\/p>\n I got there around 10 am with a Venezuelan flag, a phone and a jacket that I quickly regretted bringing. Even the maracuchos were struggling with the heat after a while. By the time I arrived, the scene outside the courthouse had long organized itself into two blocs. On one side: baseball jerseys, suits, delivery backpacks, seven and eight-starred flags, and handmade signs. Hanging from a tree like a pi\u00f1ata that had made bad life choices, a Maduro<\/a> life-size figure in a prison uniform courtesy of artist Jorge Torrealba. A Spanish man held up a sign with the faces of Maduro, Jos\u00e9 Luis Rodr\u00edguez Zapatero and Pedro S\u00e1nchez below the word Criminales. A woman from Catatumbo, Zulia held a sign that read Libertad para Fernando Loaiza, the democratically elected mayor of her local government who was detained <\/a>last March by Maduro security forces and still remains in prison without trial.<\/p>\n On the other side of the barricade, mass produced laminated signs asking for the release of Maduro and Flores and chants delivered with little conviction. The early birds reported that the crowd arrived around 8 am. Although I found no public call from the expected culprits (The People\u2019s Forum, Codepink, and other usual suspects) they assembled around 20 people from different socialist groups, holding our flag with the slightly uncertain grip of someone who had picked it up that morning. Their chants were about US imperialism, sovereignty, and international law. All real things. All also, somehow, beside the point.<\/p>\n The pro-Maduro crowd chanted back: \u201cFree them all.\u201d For a second I thought we were agreeing on the immediate and unconditional release of Venezuelan political prisoners.<\/p>\n When Venezuelan citizens addressed the crowd in Spanish, there was mostly no reaction. Some<\/a> of them got out a word or two, with the confidence of a born-and-raised Venezuelan yet the persuasiveness of a no sabo kid. When we spoke their language, American English, they either ignored us, flipped us off, or played dumb.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The Venezuelan ensemble erupted into \u201cA m\u00ed no me pagaron, yo vine porque quise\u201d (I didn\u2019t get paid, I came because I wanted to) with the exasperated tone of a people who have been chanting this phrase for decades. In the background, a t-shirt with an all caps text stood out: I\u2019M VENEZUELAN. NO PROPAGANDA.<\/p>\n Our Gloria al Bravo Pueblo was sung at least six times, drowning out the chants of the US protesters without fail every single time. Tambores weren\u2019t lacking, either. The chant that carried the morning was \u00bfQui\u00e9nes somos? Venezuela. \u00bfQu\u00e9 queremos? Libertad. \u00bfQu\u00e9 queremos? Justicia. Over and over.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maduro expected in court at any minute for a pre-trial hearing. <\/p>\n It’s the first time he has made a public appearance since his last hearing shortly after his capture. <\/p>\n Supporters and opponents have gathered outside the federal courthousepic.twitter.com\/O5gOnhVKHm<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Cody Weddle (@coweddle) March 26, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Ironically, the pro-Maduro crowd chanted back: \u201cFree them all.\u201d For a second I thought we were agreeing on the immediate and unconditional release of the 503 political prisoners that Delcy Rodr\u00edguez and Diosdado Cabello still refuse to let out. There\u2019s a particular kind of cognitive dissonance that works like a splinter. I started drifting toward the ones within hearing range.<\/p>\n There was a pride flag next to a Free Maduro sign. I asked about Yendri Vel\u00e1zquez, LGBTQ+ activist shot alongside Luis Peche in a targeted attack in Colombia<\/a>, both of them driven into exile by the regime they exposed. They too await justice to be served. I asked them about the socialist Gran Polo Patri\u00f3tico bloc that has spent years with the government\u2019s full blessing refusing to address abortion rights or same-sex marriage in the National Assembly. By 2025, Pride in Caracas<\/a> had been stripped of its activist organizations, and groups that chose to march did so \u201cas discreetly as possible\u201d because of Maduro & Co.\u2019s post-28J crackdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n