Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is officially facing the US justice system.
He has already stood in a New York court in order to plead not guilty to conspiracy charges brought by the US government.
He is being tried under US law.
The charing document claim that Maduro, along with his wife, Cilia Flores, and son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, along with a series of accomplices, were involved in a in a cocaine-trafficking conspiracy and collaborated with cartels designated as terrorist groups.
The claim follows in that the accused “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States”.
Obviously, Maduro has dismissed these charges as a pretext for the USA to get its hands of Venezuela’s impressive resources — something which Donald Trump basically admitted to, in saying he wants to access Venezuelan oil for Venezuelans and Americans alike.
Maduro’s lawyer believes he should be immune from prosecution because of the sheer illegality of his abduction.
US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein has set the next hearing for March 17.
Leaving court, Maduro said in Spanish that he is a “kidnapped president” and a “prisoner of war”.
Presently, the indictment does not include what evidence prosecutors have against Maduro, as lawyers say is usually the case in international narcotics trafficking indictments. The evidence remains classified…or confidential. Even some of the trial will not take place under the eyes of the public.
Prosecutors have reportedly been building the case for over a decade. The 25-page indictment suggests that the accused provided “law enforcement cover and logistical support” for drug shipments through Venezuela, knowing they were headed for the US, since 1999. Upon stepping office in 2013, Nicolás Maduro allegedly allowed the drug trade to “flourish for his own benefit, for the benefit of members of his ruling regime, and for the benefit of his family members”. Prosecutors allege his wife, who was leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Together, the spouses allegedly commandeered state-sponsored gangs and “ordered kidnappings, beatings, and murders against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation”.
Some legal experts point out that the US operation to bring Maduro to New York violated the UN Charter and other international law.
Toppling Maduro and Threatening Iran Are One Thing – “Accessing Venezuela’s Oil” Quite Another
