Maduro, Appearing in U.S. Court for Arraignment, Says He Was ‘Kidnapped’ and Pleads Not Guilty

“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I am a decent man,” the captured Venezuelan president told a judge in Manhattan federal court. “I am still president of my country.”

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 and cocaine importation.

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.

Southern District prosecutors had long targeted Mr. Maduro. Along with the charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine, he pleaded not guilty to charges of possessing and conspiring to possess machine guns. The combination of the machine gun counts with drug trafficking charges can result in lengthy prison sentences and prosecutors often pair them.

As the hearing drew on, Mr. Maduro began to test the limits on his speech. He told Judge Hellerstein, that he “would like to ask that my notes be respected, and that I be allowed to keep them.”

“I believe you are entitled to keep them,” Judge Hellerstein said, sounding surprised.

At one point, Judge Hellerstein asked a rudimentary, housekeeping question that is typically raised at such hearings: the date and time of the arrests. The prosecutor, Kyle Wirshba, responded precisely: The defendants entered law enforcement custody at 11:30 a.m. on Jan. 3. He did not mention the military raid on foreign soil that led to their apprehension.

The indictment names six defendants. They also include Mr. Maduro’s son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, known as Nicolásito; a former minister of the interior and justice, Ramón Rodríguez Chacín; Diosdado Cabello Rondón, the current minister of interior, justice and peace; and Héctor Guerrero Flores, the leader of Tren de Aragua, a prison gang that the Trump administration has designated as a foreign terrorist organization and linked to Mr. Maduro.

Shortly before the arraignment began, Mr. Maduro’s son delivered a fiery speech during a closely watched meeting of the Venezuelan National Assembly, saying that his father and “second mother” were kidnapped by the United States and that the world was facing a “dangerous regression” to imperialism.

The inclusion of Mr. Guerrero Flores, who was also indicted in a different case in December and remains at large, reflects the White House’s repeated assertion that Mr. Maduro worked with narco-terrorists, including Tren de Aragua. The indictment does not tie Mr. Guerrero Flores directly to Mr. Maduro. Instead, it said Mr. Guerrero Flores cooperated with “members of the Venezuelan regime.”

The indictment says Ms. Flores, her husband and other defendants “partnered with narcotics traffickers and narco-terrorist groups” that were sending cocaine from Venezuela to the United States through countries like Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. She is charged in the trafficking conspiracy but not in the narco-terrorism conspiracy.

The indictment also says Ms. Flores attended a meeting in 2007 where she “accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to broker a meeting between a large-scale drug trafficker and the director of Venezuela’s national antidrug office, Néstor Reverol Torres.”

On Monday morning, while Mr. Maduro’s arraignment proceeded on the 26th floor of the federal courthouse, the global debate over the U.S. intervention in Venezuela played out in miniature on the street.

Hundreds of protesters gathered at the mouth of a park across from the courthouse, chanting in English and Spanish and waving signs that said “U.S.A. Hands Off Venezuela” and “U.S. Out of Latin America.” A few wore kaffiyehs. Soon, another group with hats and caps with the Venezuelan flag arrived to chant in response.

They cheered “Libertad!” and chanted, in Spanish, “It already fell; it already fell; this dictatorship already fell.” They were joined by several supporters of President Trump, one of whom carried a giant red flag that said “Trump for King” and bore a crowned image of the president.

Among them was Pedro Reyes, 39, who stood outside the courtroom for hours. He held a poster with pictures of his own body studded with ugly wounds and the words: “Twelve years of waiting, pain and silence. Today, my aggressor is captured.”

Mr. Reyes said in an interview that as a protester in Venezuela he was imprisoned for three days. “They urinated on me. They abused me. They stripped me naked and poured cold water on me,” said Mr. Reyes, who now lives in Brooklyn and works in a restaurant.

He said he was happy to see Mr. Maduro in federal court, no matter how long a trial takes. “It’s a small justice for many of my friends who lost their lives,” he said.

The protest energy carried into the courtroom. As the hearing ended and Mr. Maduro was being escorted to a side door, a man in the gallery dressed in a white shirt and black coat rose and addressed Mr. Maduro.

The man, who later identified himself as Pedro Rojas, 33, another former political prisoner in Venezuela, spoke to Mr. Maduro in the otherwise silent courtroom. He said in Spanish that Mr. Maduro would pay for his crimes.

Mr. Maduro responded in Spanish that he would win his freedom. Then, loud enough that it carried through the room, he added: “I am a prisoner of war.”

Olivia Bensimon, Maria Cramer and Emma Bubola contributed reporting.

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