{"id":81217,"date":"2026-01-06T13:32:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=81217"},"modified":"2026-01-06T13:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T13:32:13","slug":"seized-by-us-forces-maduro-tells-new-york-court-he-remains-venezuelas-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/06\/seized-by-us-forces-maduro-tells-new-york-court-he-remains-venezuelas-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Seized by US Forces, Maduro Tells New York Court He Remains Venezuela\u2019s President"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has declared that he remains the country\u2019s legitimate president as he appeared before a federal court in New York following his arrest by United States forces.<br \/>\nMaduro, 63, pleaded not guilty on Monday to drug trafficking and related charges during his first court appearance in Manhattan. Speaking through an interpreter, he insisted he was innocent and said he had been unlawfully taken from Venezuela.<br \/>\n\u201cI am the president of the Republic of Venezuela, and I was kidnapped from Caracas,\u201d Maduro told the court, claiming his arrest violated the country\u2019s sovereignty.<br \/>\nHis wife, Cilia Flores, also pleaded not guilty. The court ordered both to remain in custody and fixed March 17 for their next hearing.<br \/>\nMaduro\u2019s arrest followed a surprise US military operation in Caracas that reportedly involved airstrikes and a heavy security presence. The operation sparked protests by his supporters, while his former deputy, Delcy Rodr\u00edguez, was sworn in as interim president.<br \/>\nUS President Donald Trump later declared that Washington was now \u201cin charge\u201d in Venezuela and signaled plans to assert control over the country\u2019s oil sector, dismissing calls for immediate elections.<br \/>\nMaduro, who assumed power in 2013 after the death of Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, has long been accused by the US and European Union of rigging elections and jailing opponents, allegations his government has denied.<br \/>\nThe unfolding developments have plunged Venezuela into renewed uncertainty as legal proceedings against Maduro continue in the United States.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro has declared that he remains the country\u2019s legitimate president as he appeared before a federal court in New York following his arrest by United States forces. Maduro, 63, pleaded not guilty on Monday to drug trafficking and related charges during his first court appearance in Manhattan. Speaking [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":81218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1754,1386],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-news","category-judiciary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81217"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81219,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81217\/revisions\/81219"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}