SerpApi.Org
Nicolás Maduro will spend at least one more year behind bars as he awaits his trial on drug trafficking and gun charges.
The former Venezuelan president, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores have been held in a jail in Brooklyn, New York for nearly seven months after they were captured in a daring nighttime raid by US forces on Jan 3.
The lightning operation combined naval, air and ground forces, deposing the strongman who had led Venezuela since 2013.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the trial date for June 1, 2027, following a joint request from prosecutors and defence counsel.
Protesters with signs reading “Free President Maduro” gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse, waving Venezuelan flags, while opposing demonstrators held placards calling Mr Maduro and Ms Flores “dictators”.
Mr Maduro has declared himself a “prisoner of war” and denied the four counts he faces: “narco-terrorism” conspiracy; cocaine importation conspiracy; possession of machine guns and destructive devices; and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Since Mr Maduro’s capture, Venezuela has been led by Delcy Rodríguez, his former vice-president and close ally. At the same time, the US effectively controls the country’s oil exports, with proceeds going into special accounts overseen by Washington.
In April, the United States allowed Venezuela to pay for the couple’s legal defence, something previously barred by US sanctions.
The couple had sought to have their cases dismissed on the grounds that blocking the funding violated the US Constitution’s right to counsel of one’s choice.
Mr Maduro also faces a civil case in the US after the families of five young men killed in Venezuela alleged that he ordered the extrajudicial killings as part of a wider pattern of state violence.
The complaint filed last month states that Mr Maduro had an elite security force called Special Action Forces (FAES), execute the men between 2017 and 2020.
It says the victims were among thousands killed under Mr Maduro’s command by units including FAES, which was dissolved in 2022 after complaints of human rights abuses, including from the UN.
During his 2013-26 presidency, he was widely accused of using political repression to cling to power. Both of his re-elections, in 2018 and 2024, were rejected as fraudulent by numerous countries, including the United States.
Mr Maduro was expected to seek immunity in the civil proceedings as a head of state, The New York Times reported.
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