Ousted Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro will appear in a New York City courtroom today after his capture by the US military.
Maduro is expected to make his first court appearance in New York City at noon ET.
The US District Court for the Southern District of New York disclosed that the hearing will be before US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein.
The Department of Justice unsealed a new indictment against Maduro on Saturday, part of a criminal drug-trafficking case the federal government has pursued in court for 15 years — with Maduro as a named defendant for six years.
Hellerstein has overseen the case for more than a decade. The 92-year-old Clinton appointee is a very experienced jurist who has handled several high-profile cases.
President Donald Trump said on Sunday that “we’re just going to go through a slog of a trial” ahead of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s first court appearance. “The case is infallible. People are so happy with what we’ve done,” he added.
Trump also called US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who is overseeing the case, “highly respected.”
The US accuses Maduro, who is charged with drug trafficking and weapons offences, of running a “narco-terrorist” regime, a claim he denies.
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, now Acting President, adopted a conciliatory tone at her first cabinet meeting on Sunday, offering co-operation with the US.
She said that she has extended an invitation to the United States government to collaborate on an “agenda of cooperation.”
The agenda, she said in a statement on social media, would be aimed at “shared development, within the framework of international law to strengthen lasting community coexistence.”
Rodríguez stated that Venezuela will “prioritize” moving toward “balanced and respectful international relations” with the US and the region.
“President Donald Trump: our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war. This has always been President Nicolás Maduro’s message, and it is a message of all Venezuela right now.
“Venezuela has the right to peace, to development, to sovereignty and to a future.”
Delcy Rodríguez
The latest comments by Rodríguez are a noticeable shift from earlier statements in which she condemned the “brutal use of force” by the United States to seize Maduro.
Delcy Rodríguez took office as Venezuela’s acting President shortly after she called for “cooperation” with the US. Backed by Venezuela’s Supreme Court and the military, she will be sworn in as President on Monday in Caracas, at 08:00 local time (12:00 GMT).
In an interview on Sunday, Trump said of Rodríguez; “If she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
He added that for Venezuela,“Regime change, anything you want to call it, is better than what you have right now. Can’t get any worse.”
Trump Threatens Colombia
Trump also threatened Venezuela’s neighbour Colombia, in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One.
He did not rule out military action against Colombia, saying “it sounds good to me,” and called Colombian President Gustavo Petro “a sick man.”
“Colombia is very sick, too, run by a sick man, who likes making cocaine and selling it to the United States, and he’s not going to be doing it very long.”
Donald Trump
In a joint statement, the governments of Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay and Spain said that the US’s military actions “constitute an extremely dangerous precedent for peace and regional security and endanger the civilian population.”
