The Latest: Maduro arrives at US courthouse to face drug trafficking charges
Jan 5, 2026, 5:14 AM | Updated: 6:00 pm
FILE - Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro places his hand over his heart while talking to high-ranking officers during a military ceremony on his inauguration day for a third term, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.
His lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of a foreign state. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
Maduro, along with his wife, son and three others, is accused of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.
Here’s the latest:
The trip across Lower Manhattan to the courthouse was swift. The vehicle carrying Maduro backed into a garage in the courthouse complex at around 7:40 am. From there, he will be out of public view until he appears in court, which is expected at around noon.
Bicycle-rack style barricades are lining both sides of the street for several blocks around the main entrance on Worth Street, while police officers on foot and in marked cars patrol the area.
Behind the courthouse, near where inmates are brought in, Pearl Street is closed to foot traffic.
Inside the courthouse, men in U.S. Marshals Service windbreakers and tactical gear roamed the lobby. Outside, dozens of people are lined up, including reporters and paid line-sitters, looking to get a spot inside the courtroom. Some people have tents, seats and hand warmers to deal with the long wait and bitter cold.
A stand is set up with microphones from various news outlets in anticipation that someone connected to the case will speak.
Across the street, more than a dozen TV crews are set up to broadcast live, while all around, a few citizen journalists deliver their own updates into cell phones via YouTube and TikTok.
Maduro’s arraignment is set for noon before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein at the federal courthouse in Manhattan.
As uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodríguez has taken the place of her ally Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation, and offered “to collaborate” with the Trump administration in what could be a seismic shift in relations between the adversary governments.
Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.
She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation.
On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, and the leader was backed by Venezuela’s military.
▶ Read more about Rodríguez
In his celebratory news conference, Trump set out an extraordinarily forthright view of the use of U.S. power in Latin America that exposed political divisions from Mexico to Argentina as Trump-friendly leaders rise across the region.
“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump proclaimed just hours before Maduro was perp-walked through the offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New York.
The scene marked a stunning culmination of months of escalation in Washington’s confrontation with Caracas that has reawakened memories of a past era of blatant U.S. interventionism in the region.
The new, aggressive foreign policy — which Trump now calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” in reference to 19th-century President James Monroe’s belief that the U.S. should dominate its sphere of influence — has carved the hemisphere into allies and foes.
Saturday’s dramatic events — including Trump’s vow that Washington would “run” Venezuela and seize control of its oil sector — galvanized opposite sides of the polarized continent.
▶ Read more about the division of a changed region
