Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, saying he was 'kidnapped' by the U.S., pleads not guilty to narco-terrorism charge

Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro declared himself "a prisoner of war" after pleading not guilty on Monday to federal charges he promoted violence and intimidation while enriching himself to help cocaine cartels in Colombia and Mexico smuggle tons of the drug into the United States.

American military forces, in a quick-strike operation Saturday morning, arrested the South American president and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas and brought them to New York City. Maduro faces a four-count indictment on narco-terrorism and drug smuggling conspiracies and weapons charges. Flores, who pleaded not guilty, faces three counts of drug smuggling and weapons charges.

The captured leader entered the Manhattan federal courtroom Monday around noon in leg shackles, wearing blue prison scrubs and an orange long-sleeve shirt, cheerfully bidding "Happy New Year" to the media seated in the jury box and the audience in the gallery.

"I am innocent," he told U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein when asked to enter his plea. "I'm a decent man. I am president of my country."

Federal prosecutors charge in their indictment, however, that for more than a quarter- century, Maduro and other politicians "abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States."

They say that as early as 1999, Maduro worked with brutal and powerful drug operations like the FARC, the Sinaloa drug cartel and Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua to "enrich and entrench Venezuela’s political and military elite."

Drug money from this alliance flowed from the president’s office to rank-and-file public officials who are part of the so-called "Cartel de Los Sols" — named after the insignia on the uniforms of top military leaders — corrupting nearly every aspect of Venezuelan life, prosecutors said.

Oil-rich Venezuela sits at an important nexus between the northern range of the Andes Mountains — where coca plants are grown — and the Caribbean Sea, with many busy ports that allow the shipping of the drugs to the United States and beyond, prosecutors said.

Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, who represented Martin Tankleff, a Long Island man cleared of killing his parents, told the court he had summarized the charges to his client, and Maduro read the document, taking notes on a legal notepad.

"Mr. Maduro is the head of a sovereign state," the attorney told the court, sketching out some of his defense strategy. "He's entitled to the privileges and immunity that go with that office. In addition, there are issues with the legalities of this military abduction."

The ouster of Maduro, as outlined in a 23-page indictment that describes his alleged crimes in broad strokes, but gives few details, appears to be a departure from President Donald Trump's "America First" promises when he was elected.

After Maduro's arrest, Trump held a news conference saying, "We're going to run [Venezuela] until such time as we can do a safe, proper and judicious transfer."

However, there has been little U.S. presence in the country since the extraction of the leader and his wife, according to news reports.

Delcy Rodríguez said she would work with the Trump administration, but Monday, after she was sworn in as the interim president in the National Assembly in Caracas, she spoke out against Maduro's ouster.

"I come with sorrow for the suffering inflicted upon the Venezuelan people following an illegitimate military aggression against our homeland," the former vice president said.

Hellerstein told Maduro and Flores, "My job is to ensure this is a fair trial, and these are fair proceedings," before asking the couple to confirm their identities.

"I am the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela," Maduro said in Spanish after stating his name. "I am here, kidnapped. I was captured in my home in Caracas, Venezuela."

Maduro's son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, who is also named in the indictment, said his father's prosecution threatened to undermine global order.

"If we normalize the kidnapping of a head of state, no country is safe. Today, it’s Venezuela. Tomorrow, it could be any nation that refuses to submit," he said in Venezuela, in his first appearance since his parents' arrest.

Prosecutors charge they have evidence that the Maduros' political corruption, around 2006 and 2008, included selling Venezuelan diplomatic passports to narco-traffickers so they could move cocaine to Mexico without the interference of law enforcement.

The State Department reported an estimated 200 to 250 tons of cocaine moved through the South American country in 2020, transported via speedboats, fishing vessels, container ships, as well as commercial and private aircraft.

Flores married Maduro in 2013, but six years before their wedding, she was acting as a go-between for large-scale drug traffickers and drug enforcement officials, according to court records. Federal prosecutors said she accepted "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in bribes for her efforts.

During the decade leading up to their marriage, Maduro and Flores ran "collectivos," or state-sponsored gangs, that would kidnap, beat and even murder their rivals and those who owed them money, authorities said.

The couple ordered a hit on a Caracas drug dealer, prosecutors said, to be undertaken by their collectivo.

At the end of Monday's hearing, Pedro Rojas, who said he'd been imprisoned by Maduro for his opposition to his regime, stood up in the courtroom and shouted in Spanish, "Now you will see a real judge!"

Maduro responded, "I am a man of God. I am a kidnapped president. I am a prisoner of war," as U.S. Marshals led him out of the court to the holding cells in the courthouse.

After Maduro became president in 2013, Venezuelan officials orchestrated a 1.3-ton shipment of cocaine to Paris, only to see it seized when it arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport, according to court records.

Maduro later ordered the arrest of low-level military leaders to divert attention away from him, authorities said.

A Drug Enforcement Administration cooperator recorded relatives of Maduro and his wife discussing a cocaine flight from the "presidential hangar" in Maiquetía and said the FARC was raising $20 million for Flores’ 2015 campaign for the National Assembly, according to the indictment.

In prior years, Venezuela’s first couple facilitated arms shipments to the terrorist group, including grenades and grenade launchers, prosecutors said.

Flores appeared in court on Monday, dressed in orange and blue prison garb with bandages on her forehead and right eye, beside her lawyer, Mark Donnelly, who said his client had suffered several injuries, including bruised ribs, during the military extraction. He asked the judge that her injuries be treated while she awaited trial.

The couple's next court date is March 17.

Newsday's Nicole Fuller contributed to this story.

With AP