Locked up in a Brooklyn prison since his spectacular capture by the American army at the beginning of January, the deposed Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, is back before American justice on Thursday in New York. This rare public appearance of the former strongman of Caracas, aged 63, who appears with his wife Cilia Flores, 69, will be particularly scrutinized.
Shortly after 4 a.m., a large police convoy left the prison where the couple is being held to reach the Manhattan court where they are expected, AFP journalists noted. There, a few dozen opponents of the former head of state gathered.
“We are desperately seeking the slightest form of justice for everything we have been through,” reports Carlos Egana, a 30-year-old Venezuelan educator, who brandishes a grimacing mannequin bearing the likeness of Nicolas Maduro.
Reading and physical exercise in his cell
“And the fact that this is happening, whether here in the United States or elsewhere, is a reason to rejoice.” Not far from them, activists from small left-wing organizations brandish signs hostile to Donald Trump’s policies: “From Venezuela to Iran, enough sanctions and bombs!”
Nicolas Maduro has not spoken since a first hearing before the same federal court in the Southern District of Manhattan on January 5, during which he and his wife were formally charged with drug trafficking, the official reason for their capture. Combative, he then presented himself as “the president of the Republic of Venezuela” in office “kidnapped” by the United States, defining himself from then on as a “prisoner of war”.
Since their arrival on American soil on January 3, the couple has been incarcerated at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, a federal prison known for its unsanitary conditions and poor management. Alone in his cell, without access to the Internet and newspapers, the man some of his fellow inmates call “the president” reads the Bible, according to those around him. He also “exercises”, said from Caracas his son, deputy Nicolas Maduro Guerra known as “Nicolasito” (little Nicolas), who assured that the court would see the appearance of “a thin, athletic president”.
Request for cancellation of proceedings
Thursday’s hearing mainly aims to resolve procedural questions, prior to any start of examination on the merits. Prosecuted in the United States on four counts, including narcoterrorism, the former head of state is accused of having protected and promoted vast drug trafficking, in particular by allying himself with guerrilla movements and criminal cartels considered “terrorist” by Washington.
His wife faces three charges, mainly for having served as an intermediary between drug traffickers and senior officials of the country. While both plead not guilty, their lawyers are seeking a dismissal of the indictment. At the heart of their argument: the American administration is preventing the Venezuelan state from paying the couple’s defense costs, due to international sanctions weighing on their country.
A 92-year-old judge
According to the defense, denying a defendant access to a lawyer of his choice is a violation of a right guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the US Constitution. On the contrary, the prosecution believes that the couple has enough resources to pay for it themselves.
Responsible for resolving this first dispute (then, on a date which has not yet been decided, for conducting the trial of the former head of state): Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a veteran of New York justice, aged 92.
Experienced in major media cases, he has been responsible for more than ten years for the vast drug trafficking case in which Nicolas Maduro is indicted, which has already resulted in the conviction of the former head of Venezuela’s intelligence services, Hugo Armando Carvajal.
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(afp/yb)
