Christmas is not over and 2026 has already left one of the news of the year and beyond. This Monday he experienced a key historical step.
The former president of Venezuela has faced his first judicial hearing before the federal court of the Southern District of New Yorkwhere he and his wife, Cilia Flores, face various charges in relation to narcoterrorism and weapons possession with which the Trump Administration justified his detention, reactivating an order launched in 2020.
and to identify themselves as victims of a “kidnapping.” The one who was head of Chavismo for the last 13 years has gone further. Before federal judge Alvin Hellerstein, 92, Nicolás Maduro has defined himself as a “prisoner of war” and a “decent man”. Nothing particularly surprising in what was known would simply be the first judicial chapter of a process that seems as long as it is cumbersome. Not in vain, the judge told Maduro that “there will be time” to talk about his arrest and other details… something that was not a reason for analysis today.
Both Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores dressed with the ‘protocol’ prisoner clothing; that is, orange shoes, khaki pants and a navy blue short-sleeved t-shirt over another orange one, The former president appeared with a slight limp. Now without handcuffs, Maduro has used headphones to have simultaneous translation. It won’t be the last time.
Again before the judge on March 17
After the quick hearing of about an hour, the magistrate Hellerstein has summoned Maduro and his wife again for Saturday, March 17 at 11:00 (17:00 Spanish peninsular time).
Until then, Both will remain in provisional prison at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (New York state), where they were directed after being taken from Venezuela to the US, on a journey televised live and turned into a spectacle by Donald Trump. These penitentiary facilities are like the poor conditions of the prisoners, the dangerousness of their inmates or the lack of personnel to meet the demands of the huge number of inmates.
If nothing changes, which does not seem likely, the March 17 event will be identical in format to this Monday, January 5, despite the fact that The couple requested a “consular visit”, alleging the health problems of the two. Especially Cilia Flores, who had more serious injuries to her ribs and appeared with bandages on her forehead, as cited by EFE.
No bail “for now”
The legal situation of Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores does not change after their initial statement before the federal court. For now both will remain in provisional prisonsince the Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, has declined the option of requesting bail “for the moment”, although he has not ruled out doing so in the future.
What the lawyer is promoting are the “doubts about the legality” of the procedureconsidering that Maduro has the “right to the privileges” that correspond to the “head of a sovereign State.”
A very little ‘mature’ judicial horizon
All parties are aware that the process will be long and that what we experienced this Monday in New York is just the prologue to many months of travel. Ahead, first, two and a half months of waiting in provisional prison until the judge has Maduro and Flores before him again.
Beyond that, a horizon as long as it is uncertain in terms of deadlines for the different stages of the legal procedure to be overcome. In the absence of certainty in the form of a date, there is several more months until the Venezuelan couple faces the jury that will mark his judicial destiny with the formal beginning of the potential trial.
The case reactivated against the former Venezuelan president since this Saturday raises the range of possible sentences to between 20 years and life imprisonment, which would be the maximum for the current accusations. Charges of narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices y conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the United States.
And in Venezuela, meanwhile, its number two takes power
The vagaries of the agenda have meant that while Nicolás Maduro insisted to the judge that “I am still president of Venezuela”, his number two completed the legal procedure to be invested as interim president of the country. Delcy Rodríguez, until now vice president and all-powerful Minister of Hydrocarbons – key because it is the oil portfolio.
She is the person chosen – at least for the moment – by Donald Trump to lead Venezuela’s transition towards democracy. That is the plan of the US president, establishing himself as a kind of ‘big brother’ of the Caribbean country. Delcy Rodríguez recently addressed him with the ‘offer’ to “work together” with the US in the new times of Venezuela.
In this new stage in the making There does not seem to be much room for leaders opposed to Chavismo. Not, at least, for the two key figures to date, who are targeted by Donald Trump’s designs.
Neither the opposition leader María Corina Machado nor the opposition candidate and president-elect of Venezuela for dozens of countries (and also for the Congress of Deputies, although not for the Government of Spain), Edmundo González, seem to enjoy the sympathy of the Republican magnate. Particularly striking is the case of Machado, whom he accuses of “not having support or respect within the country”. She has preferred not to give a direct response and has limited herself to “thanking” their strength and putting herself at the disposal of the US to promise that Venezuela will be a “main ally.”
