Venezuelan president Nicolás and his wife who were snatched up by U.S. forces over the weekend, is now staring down the American justice system.
Prosecutors say he’s facing heavyweight charges, including “narco-terrorism” and conspiring to move cocaine into the U.S, the kind of allegations that don’t come with light sentences. We’re talking life behind bars if convicted.
Videos and photos from Manhattan showed Maduro being escorted off a helicopter, this Monday morning surrounded by armed Drug Enforcement Administration agents who weren’t playing around. And he wasn’t alone.
His wife, Cilia Flores, was also taken into custody during a pre-dawn raid Saturday in Caracas. She’s scheduled for her own court appearance later the same day.
As expected for first appearances, both are likely to plead not guilty. Still, nobody’s pretending this case will move fast. With stakes this high, jury selection alone could drag on for months before a trial even begins.
According to the unsealed indictment, the charges don’t stop at drugs. Maduro and Flores are also accused of “possession of machineguns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machineguns and destructive devices against the United States.”
Federal prosecutors are painting a picture of a regime that blurred the line between government and criminal enterprise.
Back home, the reaction has been explosive.
Several countries are calling foul, accusing Washington of stomping on Venezuela’s sovereignty and breaking international law. U.S. officials, meanwhile, say the operation was months in the making, with special forces quietly setting the stage before moving in on Caracas.
Maduro’s fall hits especially hard given how he rose. He took power in 2013 after Hugo Chávez died, inheriting a nation built on oil money just before the global market crashed. What followed was years of empty shelves, runaway inflation, and millions of Venezuelans leaving just to survive.
With Maduro gone, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez has stepped in. She didn’t mince words, calling his capture a “kidnapping” and demanding his immediate release.
For now, though, Maduro isn’t calling shots from a palace. He’s in New York, in custody, waiting for a judge… a long way from Caracas, and even farther from power.