PNN – “Nicolas Maduro,” the detained President of Venezuela, will appear in a New York court.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network citing Al Jazeera network, Nicolas Maduro, the detained President of Venezuela, will appear before a federal judge in a Manhattan, New York court today (Monday).
This session is being held after American forces abducted him in a special military operation in Caracas.
According to American media, Maduro will appear in court at noon local time on Monday to be informed of the charges brought against him. The case has been assigned to Judge “Alvin Hellerstein,” a 93-year-old Jewish judge.
A few hours after Maduro’s abduction in the early hours of Saturday, he was transferred by plane to Stewart Air Force Base in New York State, and then, along with his wife, Cilia Flores, was taken in handcuffs to the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Manhattan. After an initial interrogation, he was transferred to a detention center in Brooklyn.
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On Saturday, American officials released the text of the federal indictment against Maduro; an indictment that includes the charge of “drug-related terrorism” and several other charges. Maduro had previously denied these charges.
In addition to the charge of “drug-related terrorism,” the indictment includes the following: conspiracy to traffic cocaine into the United States and possession of automatic weapons and destructive devices.
Similar charges have also been brought against Maduro’s wife, his son, and several other senior Venezuelan officials.
The legal document claims that Maduro and the other defendants have cooperated with international drug cartels since 1999, including Mexico’s “Sinaloa” and “Zetas,” groups in Colombia, and the “Tren de Aragua” gang in Venezuela.
It is also claimed that during his tenure as Foreign Minister (2006 to 2008), Maduro sold diplomatic passports to individuals linked to drug trafficking.
Protests in New York
Simultaneously with these developments, dozens of people protested in New York against Maduro’s detention. Protesters gathered in front of his detention center in Brooklyn, condemning the American military operation on Venezuelan soil and calling it the “abduction” of Maduro and his wife.
Protesters in New York, chanting slogans, demanded that “the US keep its hands off Venezuela” and called for the immediate release of the country’s President.
They accused the Trump administration, stating that the aim of this trial is not the freedom of the Venezuelan people, but rather the control and plundering of this country’s natural resources and wealth.
New York police also implemented extensive security measures around the detention center, deploying dozens of officers and police vehicles to secure the area.