Venezuela’s Maduro Lands In New York To Face Justice In Narcoterrorism Case
Ousted Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, arrived in New York on Saturday to face narcoterrorism charges in the United States.
Maduro and Flores landed at Stewart Air National Guard Base in Windsor, New York, shortly after 4:45 p.m., according to the New York Post. Their arrival came just 14 hours after U.S. military forces arrested the couple overnight at their compound in Caracas, Venezuela.
Video from the airbase showed the pair being escorted down the aircraft stairs under heavy guard by dozens of U.S. law enforcement officers before being taken into a secure facility on the base.
Following his capture, Maduro was photographed blindfolded and handcuffed aboard the USS Iwo Jima, wearing a Nike tracksuit in images released after the operation.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed an indictment charging Maduro and Flores with narco-terrorism conspiracy. Maduro also faces charges including conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to use those weapons against the United States.
Among the most serious allegations in the indictment is that Maduro used so-called diplomatic missions as cover to traffic cocaine and issued diplomatic passports to drug traffickers moving narcotics proceeds across borders.
During a news conference Saturday morning, President Donald Trump said Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio would work together with Venezuelan officials to ensure a stable transition following Maduro’s removal. Trump suggested that opposition leader María Corina Machado is unlikely to become Venezuela’s next president, arguing she lacks sufficient domestic support.
“There is nobody to take over,” Trump said. “You have a vice president appointed by Maduro. Right now she’s the vice president, and she’s sworn in as president. She had a long conversation with Marco and said we’ll do whatever you need.”
Trump added that the United States would remain involved to prevent chaos after Maduro’s removal.
“We’re not going to just do this with Maduro and leave like everybody else and say let it go to hell,” Trump said. “If we just left, it has zero chance of ever coming back.”
He also outlined an economic vision for Venezuela following a transition of power.
“We’ll run it properly. We’ll run it professionally,” Trump said. “We’ll have the greatest oil companies in the world go in and invest billions and billions of dollars, and use that money in Venezuela. The biggest beneficiaries are going to be the people of Venezuela.”
Maduro and Flores are expected to make their initial court appearances in the coming days as the case proceeds in federal court.