How Maduro Turned a Courtroom Into a Political Theater |
Had President Donald Trump’s weekend invasion of Caracas been about freedom more than oil, Lady Liberty’s torch would have shone even brighter on Monday morning, as a helicopter carrying ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro passed her on the way from a Brooklyn jail to his first appearance in Manhattan federal court.
The Venezuelan dictator, who has served as president for nearly 13 of his 63 years, entered courtroom 26A with his bullyboy swagger restricted by shackles. He tried to play it off as if the start of 2026 had not forever altered his whole reality.
“Happy New Year,” he said to a group of reporters who occupied the jury box during the arraignment.
Maduro then settled into the same seat that Sean “Diddy” Combs occupied for nearly two months during the rap mogul’s summer trial for racketeering and sex trafficking. Maduro then responded just as Combs had when the clerk called out a command: “All rise!”
The supposed strongman immediately obeyed.
“U.S. versus Nicolás Maduro Moros,” the clerk then announced.
However powerful Maduro, 63, may have imagined himself to be in Venezuela, he now stood meekly obedient in downtown Manhattan. He wore a short-sleeved navy blue top, and the prison uniform that peeked out from underneath was the same orange as his sneakers.
“My name is President Nicolás Maduro Moros,” he said in Spanish. “I am........