Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, a facility known to be severely overcrowded and unsanitary, with a history of violent incidents.
From there, he will be transported to federal court with his wife, Celia Flores, to be informed of the charges against them. The indictment is 25 pages long, detailing allegations that the couple enriched themselves through a violent criminal network that smuggled tons of cocaine into the United States.
Maduro has always rejected these allegations, considering them merely a pretext to force him from power.
The couple will give evidence, and any bail application is unlikely to be granted. President Trump reiterated his assertion that the United States will administer Venezuela for the time being, demanding what he described as full access to its oil sector.
The White House made no attempt to downplay the feeling of coercion (by Maduro), as the US President again warned against launching another military attack on Venezuela if Maduro’s remaining allies in power did not carry out Washington’s orders.
When Trump was asked to comment on the claim that the United States “kidnapped” Maduro, he said that was “not a bad description.”