RismadarVoice Reporters, July 23, 2026
A United States federal court has scheduled the trial of Venezuela’s ousted president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, for June 1, 2027, following their arrest by US forces earlier this year on drug trafficking and firearms-related charges.
The trial date was fixed on Wednesday by Judge Alvin Hellerstein during a hearing in Manhattan after a joint request by federal prosecutors and defence lawyers.
Maduro, 63, and Flores have been held in a federal detention facility in Brooklyn since January after pleading not guilty to the charges against them.
According to US authorities, the couple was captured during a military operation in Caracas on January 3, involving naval, air and ground forces that led to Maduro’s removal from power after more than a decade as Venezuela’s president.
During Wednesday’s proceedings, Maduro, dressed in a beige prison uniform, briefly greeted the court but did not make any further statements. Flores also appeared in court alongside her legal team.
Outside the courthouse, supporters of the former Venezuelan leader staged a protest demanding his release, while another group demonstrated against him, describing Maduro and his wife as dictators.
Judge Hellerstein also scheduled a November 17 hearing to consider several pretrial motions, including a legal challenge by the defence questioning the legality of the operation that led to the couple’s arrest.
Following his detention in January, Maduro described his arrest as a kidnapping and referred to himself as a “prisoner of war.”
US prosecutors allege that Maduro used the powers of the Venezuelan state to facilitate international drug trafficking and collaborated with criminal organisations to transport large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
Maduro has pleaded not guilty to four charges, including conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess such weapons.
Flores has also denied the three charges filed against her, which include conspiracy to import cocaine and firearms-related offences.
In April, US authorities approved the release of funds to enable the couple to pay for their legal defence after previously restricting access under sanctions.
Aside from the criminal proceedings, Maduro is also facing a civil lawsuit in the United States filed by the families of five Venezuelan men allegedly killed by state security forces between 2017 and 2020.
The lawsuit accuses the former president of ordering extrajudicial killings carried out by the now-disbanded Special Action Forces (FAES), a security unit that faced widespread allegations of human rights abuses before it was dissolved in 2021.
Maduro, who served as Venezuela’s president from 2013 until his removal in 2026, has consistently denied allegations of wrongdoing. His administrations and re-election victories in 2018 and 2024 were widely disputed by several countries, including the United States, over concerns about the credibility of the electoral process.
