Two days after his capture by U.S. forces in Caracas, Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and wife Cilia Flores appeared in a New York federal court on January 5, 2026, facing narcoterrorism and weapons charges. Detained in Brooklyn, Maduro pleaded not guilty, hires Assange's former lawyer, as Trump invokes Monroe Doctrine to defend the operation.
Following the U.S. military's 'Operation Absolute Resolution' on January 3—which involved over 150 aircraft, special forces, and agencies like CIA and NSA—Maduro and Flores were transferred to the U.S. They made their first court appearance Monday, January 5, before the Federal Court of the Southern District of New York, where Maduro faces four federal charges: narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices. He pleaded, 'I am innocent. I am not guilty of anything mentioned here,' and retained attorney Barry Joel Pollack, known for representing Julian Assange. Both are detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, previously holding El Chapo Guzmán and ex-Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández.
President Trump justified the action in a speech, invoking the Monroe Doctrine—renamed the 'Donroe Doctrine'—declaring, 'Under our new national security strategy, U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never again be questioned.' Originally proclaimed in 1823 to bar European intervention in the Americas, it has underpinned U.S. actions in the region for centuries.
The case draws parallels to the 1989 U.S. invasion of Panama and capture of Manuel Noriega on similar drug charges. Noriega, once a CIA asset, received 40 years and died in 2017. Analyst Eduardo Hodge of Universidad Gabriela Mistral suggests Trump's move counters foreign influence in Latin America for resources and markets. Maduro's defense plans to claim international law violations and head-of-state immunity, though weakened as the U.S. does not recognize him as legitimate president.
