NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) – Toppled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges after President Donald Trump’s stunning capture of him rattled world leaders and left officials in Caracas scrambling to regroup.
“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,” Maduro, 63, said through an interpreter, before being cut off by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court.
Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores also pleaded not guilty. The next court date was set for March 17.
Dozens of protesters, both pro- and anti-Maduro, gathered outside the courthouse before the half-hour hearing.
Inside, as he stood shackled at the ankles and wearing orange and beige prison garb, Maduro declared he had been “kidnapped” and remained president of Venezuela. He listened to an interpreter through headphones as Hellerstein summarized the charges.
Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network with international drug cartels and faces four criminal counts: narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
Maduro has long denied the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on Venezuela’s rich oil reserves.
Maduro’s defense lawyer Barry Pollack said he anticipated voluminous and complex litigation over what he called his client’s “military abduction.”
SUCCESSOR SWORN IN
Hours later in Caracas, Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president with words of support for Maduro but no indication she would fight the U.S. move.
A recent U.S. intelligence assessment determined Rodriguez would be best positioned to lead a temporary government in Maduro’s absence, finding that opposition figures such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado or onetime presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez would struggle to gain legitimacy, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the classified report.
SOURCE:Â REUTERS
