The federal judge in charge of the case against the deposed leader of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Wednesday scheduled the trial to begin on June 1, 2027. The decision was communicated at the third hearing that Maduro has attended since his capture in Caracas in January. The court session reviewed details about the criminal case against him on narcoterrorism charges.
Little by little, details are emerging about the criminal case against a man who represented everything for the Chavista regime in Venezuela. The defense team and prosecutors had proposed June 2027 as a start date for the trial, given the great complexity of the case. Before that, on November 17, another hearing has been set to assess the claims of immunity made by Maduro’s defense.
“Federal prosecutors could encounter one rather significant obstacle: Our courts don’t have the authority to handle his case. And the law that says so was signed by the United States of America. If the United States honors its agreement, it could well be forced to release its prized captive,” wrote the lawyer Michael Rips in a recent column for The New York Times.
Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York have set out the timetable to carry the case forward over this year and the next. The aim is to allow enough time to turn over evidence to the defense, according to a Department of Justice filing obtained by CNN.
At the previous hearing, held last March, the judge overseeing the case, Alvin Hellerstein, 92, rejected the defense’s request to dismiss the case over the blocking of Venezuelan funds because of sanctions Washington imposed on the Caribbean country. Last April, the United States agreed to amend the sanctions to allow Caracas to pay the legal fees of the defendants’ lawyers.
U.S. authorities accuse Maduro of charges related to drug trafficking, weapons possession and corruption.
Wednesday’s hearing is the third held in New York since the surprise operation launched by President Donald Trump to decapitate the Chavista regime, which ended with the couple’s capture in Caracas in January.
The severity of the charges against Maduro and Flores contrasts with the velvet glove with which the Trump administration is treating Maduro’s former vice president and now the country’s top leader, Delcy Rodríguez. A fervent Chavista during Maduro’s years in power, she has criticized the U.S. operation against the ex-president but said she is willing to cooperate and engage in dialogue with Washington.
Multiple reports place Secretary of State Marco Rubio as the real power broker in Venezuela, maintaining extremely close communications with Rodríguez, who is officially Venezuela’s acting president.
A day before this hearing it emerged that the Trump administration had asked the Department of Justice to guarantee Rodríguez’s immunity in a civil lawsuit filed against her in a Florida court. The rationale, set out in a letter from Reed Rubinstein, legal adviser at the State Department, is that the United States has recognized her as head of state of Venezuela since March 5. Rodríguez faces a civil suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami over alleged kidnappings, torture and terrorist acts linked to Chavismo.
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