After his highly publicized capture by U.S. forces over the weekend, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro entered a New York federal courtroom on Monday and pleaded not guilty to a suite of U.S. criminal charges, boldly declaring himself the legitimate president of his country.
Maduro and his wife and co-defendant Cilia Flores appeared before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan to face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, and weapons offenses tied to alleged state-sponsored drug trafficking networks that supplied cocaine into the United States, alongside other corruption and violence allegations.
