Venezuela’s former president Nicolas Maduro and his wife are scheduled to face trial in the United States in June 2027, following a court ruling after the pair were captured by US forces during a surprise nighttime operation in January.
At a hearing lasting about 20 minutes on Wednesday, Judge Alvin Hellerstein approved June 1 next year as the trial date after prosecutors and defence lawyers submitted a joint request.
Outside the Manhattan courthouse, demonstrators holding signs that said “Free President Maduro” protested while waving Venezuelan flags in support of the former leader.
Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores have remained in a Brooklyn jail for more than seven months after entering not guilty pleas to federal charges involving drug trafficking and firearms offences.
The couple were taken from their Caracas compound on January 3 by American commandos in a swift operation involving naval, air and ground forces. The raid resulted in the capture of Maduro, who had governed Venezuela since 2013.
Maduro has described himself as a “prisoner of war” and rejected the four charges against him, which include “narco-terrorism” conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Defence attorney Barry Pollack said on Wednesday that he planned to ask the court to dismiss the charges, arguing that Maduro should be protected from prosecution because he was the leader of a sovereign state.
Following Maduro’s capture, Venezuela has been governed by his former vice president and ally, Delcy Rodriguez, while the United States has taken control of the country’s oil exports, directing the proceeds into special accounts managed by Washington.
In April, the United States permitted Venezuela to fund legal representation for Maduro and Flores, reversing an earlier restriction imposed under US sanctions.
The couple had previously argued that preventing access to those funds violated their constitutional right to choose their own legal counsel.
Maduro is also facing a civil lawsuit in the United States after families of five young men killed in Venezuela accused him of ordering their extrajudicial executions.
