On 26 March, hundreds of people gathered outside a court in New York to demand freedom for Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, and his wife, first combatant, Cilia Flores as they appeared for a pre-trial hearing. The planned trial is a farce. According to the UN Charter, heads of state are entitled to immunity from prosecution, yet US federal prosecutors have attempted to bypass this requirement by declaring that they do not recognise Maduro’s 2024 election. Furthermore the US state prevented the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) from allowing Maduro’s defence team access to Venezuelan government funds. Consequently, Judge Alvin Hellerstein was forced to consider a motion to dismiss all charges against Maduro and Flores on the basis that the prosecution is actively violating the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution and the enshrined right to due process, preventing Venezuela from funding the defence of its own president. The hearing was adjourned without conclusion.
Rejecting this sham trial, both Maduro and Flores have pleaded ‘not guilty’. At his first court appearance in January, Maduro declared: ‘I am innocent. I am a prisoner of war. I am a decent man. I adhere to the Geneva Convention. I remain the president of my country’. Maduro and Flores have been unlawfully detained in Brooklyn’s notorious Metropolitan De-tention Centre, held in isolation under ‘Special Administrative Measures’ since 3 January when they were kidnapped by US forces. Over 100 were killed in the US military operation, including civilians bombed while they slept. Maduro and Flores face charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, possession and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices. These charges are bogus and entirely politically motivated.
To shore up its oil interests, the Trump administration has resumed diplomatic ties with Delcy Rodriguez’s government in Venezuela. Rodriguez is Maduro’s vice-president and is currently acting president whilst Maduro is in detention. Trump has exchanged ambassadors with the same Venezuelan government the US prosecution claims not to recognise. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s 2025 report declared Venezuela as a territory free of coca leaf cultivation, marijuana and cocaine processing, reporting that less than 5% of the region’s cocaine is transited through Venezuela. The fictitious charge of ‘narco-terrorism’ and the alleged threat of the ‘Cartel del los Soles’ (Cartel of the Suns) which Maduro was accused of heading, has been used by the US to justify January’s assault on Venezuela and the continued US airstrikes against fishing boats in American waters, which have killed over 170 since August 2025. However even US intelligence admits the cartel does not exist and all references to the group have been quietly dropped in the indictment against Maduro. In April, faced with the prospect of the whole case falling apart, the US Department of Justice prosecution agreed to modify US sanctions to allow money to fund Maduro’s defence. A small victory in a trial riddled with flagrant abuses of due process.
Alongside kidnapping Maduro, the US has forcibly taken control of the oil sector; controlling all export and sales effectively at gunpoint. Revenues from Venezuelan crude are now held in the US Treasury department, requiring Caracas to submit a budget request to access funds. After decimating Venezuela’s oil production through sanctions, the imperialist assault has now forced the rolling back of many elements of the 2001 Hydrocarbons Law. Royalties, paid to oil producing nations as a recognition of land ownership, have been reduced from 30% to a flexible rate. Taxes paid to the Venezuelan state on revenues generated from oil production have dropped from 33% to a flexible ‘integrated hydrocarbon tax’ capped at 15% alongside a variety of tax breaks. As these flexible rates are subject to ‘international competitiveness’, of course, private multinationals seek to drive these rates as close to 1% as possible to extract maximum profit. Whereas previously a barrel of oil selling for $100 could guarantee $63 in revenue for Venezuela, this could potentially now be just $2 per barrel. On top of this resource theft, the US maintains over 1,040 unilateral coercive measures (sanctions) against Venezuela whilst an estimated $20bn funds and assets are frozen overseas, including the 31 tonnes of Venezuelan gold illegally seized by the Bank of England. In response, mass protests across Venezuela have demanded the lifting of all sanctions, a demand it is crucial we amplify.
Maduro and Flores will next appear in court for a pre-trial hearing on 30 June. Meanwhile they remain political prisoners, detained by imperialism to discipline Venezuela’s Bolivarian revolution for the crime of using oil resources for the region’s poor and declaring its commitment to build socialism. Freedom for Maduro and Flores – hands off Venezuela!
‘Every word of love, every gesture of affection, every expression of support fills our souls and strengthens us spiritually.’
Maduro – message from prison
Write to Maduro and Flores
Nicolas Maduro Moros 00734-506
MDC Brooklyn
Metropolitan Detention Center
P.O. Box 329002
Brooklyn, NY 11232
Cilia Flores 00735-506
MDC Brooklyn
Metropolitan Detention Center
P.O. Box 329002
Brooklyn, NY 11232
All mail is opened and inspected by prison guards. Blue or black ink only, lined paper only, include a return address, no drawings or symbols, no stickers, tape or glue, no scented paper, no extra enclosures.
