Maduro Not Immune to Prosecution in Narco-Terror Case, U.S. Says
Prosecutors say the couple cannot claim head-of-state immunity because Washington has not recognized Maduro since 2019 and the case should go to trial.
- On Friday, October 2, U.S. prosecutors filed a response in Manhattan federal court asking Judge Alvin Hellerstein to reject immunity claims from former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores in their narco-terrorism case.
- Maduro's defense argued he possesses immunity as a head of state, but the government countered that he and Flores are "former rogue officials of a formerly rogue state with no entitlement to immunity" under U.S. law.
- Prosecutors cited "absolute deference" to the executive branch's decision to withdraw recognition of Maduro in 2019; the U.S. now recognizes interim President Delcy Rodriguez, undermining the couple's sovereign immunity claims.
- Separately, a Manhattan judge will hear Flores' bond request on Thursday, though prosecutors oppose her release, labeling her an "extreme flight risk" in a filing submitted last month.
- The case remains on schedule for a jury trial on June 1, 2027, with Judge Hellerstein set to hear oral arguments on November 17, pending defense replies due October 16.
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53 Articles
“There is only one president in this country named Nicolás Maduro Moros,” said the current interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, on the same day of the U.S. attack that ended in the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, and that she described as an “illegal and illegitimate kidnapping of the president and the first lady.” However, then Venezuela did not take any formal steps to claim the couple’s release or to ask for t…
Washington maintains that Caracas did claim protection as head of state for Delcy Rodriguez, but did not do the same for the ex-mandator
The United States asks a federal judge to reject the immunity claimed by Nicolás Maduro in New York; he argues that he stopped recognizing him as president of Venezuela since 2019.
Observador
U.S. prosecutors reject that Nicolás Maduro is entitled to immunity, justifying the fact that Delcy Rodríguez did not claim such protection.
Caracas did apply for this measure for Delcy Rodríguez and Washington granted it to him.
The U.S. government has revealed, through the Attorney General's Office and before a federal court in Miami, that the Delcy Rodríguez regime has not requested immunity for the dictator Nicolás Maduro, even though his defense now claims that the criminal proceedings opened against him in New York would be dismissed precisely because he would enjoy protection as head of state. The absence of that petition from Caracas has also become one of the ma…
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