Two days after being ripped from a Caracas compound, Nicolás Maduro, the captive president of Venezuela, appeared in a Manhattan courthouse and pleaded not guilty to federal charges, declaring himself a “prisoner of war.”
Mr. Maduro, who was seized by Army Delta Force commandos on Saturday and transported to the United States, wore a navy shirt over orange prison garb and headphones for translation. He blinked in the bright lights of the courtroom as he was asked for his plea.
“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country,” he said in Spanish, formally entering a plea of not guilty to narco-terrorism, cocaine importation and machine gun charges.
When he tried to keep speaking, saying that he had been “kidnapped,” the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein, interrupted.
“I only want to know one thing,” Judge Hellerstein said. “Are you Nicolás Maduro Moros?”
“I am Nicolás Maduro Moros,” the defendant responded.
It was a collision with a new reality for the ousted Venezuelan leader, an autocrat who was compelled to conform to the rules of the courtroom, where the judge is the highest authority. His expression remained neutral, but his hands were restless — sometimes holding rigid on his chair’s armrests, sometimes clasped prayer-like below his chin.
After his capture on Saturday along with his wife, Cilia Flores, who was also indicted, Mr. Maduro was brought to the United States to face charges, leaving the future of his country in question. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that Mr. Maduro, who was indicted in Manhattan five years ago before fresh charges were issued this weekend, was a fugitive from American justice and said that his rendition was “largely” a law enforcement operation.
But Mr. Maduro, who took office in 2013 after the death of Hugo Chávez, is expected to challenge the legality of his arrest and the Trump administration’s refusal to recognize him as a legitimate head of state.
A lawyer for Mr. Maduro, Barry Pollack, said at the Monday hearing that he might file motions concerning Maduro’s role as the head of a sovereign government, adding that there were also “questions about the legality of his military abduction.”
Leaders of foreign countries are typically granted immunity under international law, a norm that the United States has long observed. But Mr. Maduro has been accused by Venezuelans and many in the international community of having stolen the 2019 election that kept him in power. The United States refused to recognize him as the country’s legitimate leader after that election, or the July 2024 elections that he again purported to have won.
Mr. Maduro entered the courtroom promptly at noon, escorted by U.S. marshals, his black hair streaked with gray. He took slow, deliberate steps as he walked in, smiling slightly and surveying a sea of roughly six dozen lawyers, reporters and spectators packed into the gallery.
“Buenos dias,” he told the crowd.
He was seated two chairs away from Ms. Flores, the couple separated by one of her lawyers, Mark Donnelly. Ms. Flores, whose face was bruised and bandaged, spoke less frequently than her husband, but echoed his defiance.
“I am the first lady of the Republic of Venezuela,” she said, when asked by Judge Hellerstein to identify herself. She also pleaded not guilty.
Jonah E. Bromwich covers criminal justice in the New York region for The Times. He is focused on political influence and its effect on the rule of law in the area’s federal and state courts.
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