- Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, filed motions Sept. 2 asking a Manhattan federal court to dismiss their drug-trafficking indictment on head-of-state immunity grounds.
- Prosecutors have until Oct. 2 to respond; Judge Alvin Hellerstein has set a Nov. 17 hearing, with trial still scheduled for June 1, 2027, if the motion fails.
- Legal experts point to Manuel Noriega's failed 1990 immunity bid as an unfavorable precedent, though Maduro's lawyers argue the cases aren't identical.
- Even a dismissal wouldn't undo Venezuela's political transition, restore Maduro's legitimacy, or reopen asylum protections for Venezuelans who already fled — a separate Sept. 4 immigration ruling makes that clear.
Nicolás Maduro is fighting his U.S. drug case with the only card he has left: the claim that he never stopped being president. On Wednesday, lawyers for the ousted Venezuelan leader, alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, asked a federal judge in Manhattan to throw out their entire indictment, arguing that international law puts an incumbent national leader beyond the reach of any foreign courtroom.
