Ousted Venezuela president Maduro to return to New York court

NEW YORK – Lawyers for ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro are expected to push for the dismissal of his drug trafficking charges when he appears in a New York court on March 26.

The Manhattan hearing comes as Washington cautiously warms ties with Caracas, with the question of who will pay the legal fees of the former autocrat and his wife expected to take centre stage.

Venezuela’s government is seeking to pay Maduro’s legal fees but because of Washington’s sanctions on the oil-rich South American nation, Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack must obtain a US government licence that has not been issued.

Mr Pollack argued in a court submission that the licence requirement violated Maduro’s constitutional right to legal representation, and demanded the case be thrown out on procedural grounds.

Maduro, who had autocratically ruled Venezuela since March 2013, was ousted as president in a Jan 3 raid by the United States.

Detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal prison known for unsanitary conditions, Maduro is alone in a cell, with no access to the internet or newspapers.

The man some of his fellow detainees call “president” in the hallways reads the Bible, according to a source close to the Venezuelan government.

He is allowed to communicate only by phone with his family and lawyers, for a maximum of 15 minutes per call, the source added.

“The lawyers told us he is strong. He said we must not be sad,” said his only son, Mr Nicolas Maduro Guerra, quoting his father as saying “we are fine; we are fighters”.

‘Prisoner of war’ claim

Maduro, 63, has pleaded not guilty to the US drug trafficking charges, and declared that he is a “prisoner of war” in a hearing on Jan 5.

He is accused of having allied himself with guerrilla movements, particularly Colombian groups Washington considers “terrorist”, as well as with criminal cartels to ship tonnes of cocaine to the US.

Mr Pollack previously said that the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), responsible for enforcing sanctions, initially granted licences on Jan 9 allowing him to take payment for representing Maduro and his wife, co-accused Cilia Flores.

But Mr Pollack said that three hours later, OFAC issued an amended licence that blocked him from taking payment for the former president.

“By its failure to allow the government of Venezuela to pay Mr Maduro’s defence costs, OFAC is interfering with Mr Maduro’s ability to retain counsel and, therefore, his right under the Sixth Amendment to counsel of his choice,” Mr Pollack said in a letter to the court dated Feb 20.

He said his team had lodged a challenge with OFAC and that if it failed to act, he would formally complain to the court, saying that Maduro “cannot otherwise afford counsel”.

Prosecutors fired back, saying in a court filing that “even if the defendants’ constitutional rights were violated – which they were not – dismissal of the indictment would be far too drastic a remedy”.

Venezuela is now led by Ms Delcy Rodriguez, who had been Maduro’s vice-president since 2018 but is now working closely with Washington.

In March, the State Department said it was restoring diplomatic ties with Venezuela in a sign of thawing relations after Maduro’s ouster.

Security is expected to again be heightened for the hearing, with a security cordon of steel imposed around the downtown courthouse for his first appearance in January.

Presiding over the case is Judge Alvin Hellerstein, a 92-year-old judge credited with presiding over several trials during his decades on the bench. AFP