Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is set to make his first appearance Monday in an American courtroom on the narco-terrorism charges the Trump administration used to justify capturing him and bringing him to New York.
Maduro and his wife are expected to appear at noon before a judge for a brief, but required, legal proceeding that will likely kick off a prolonged legal fight over whether he can be put on trial in the U.S.
His lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of a foreign state. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize him as Venezuela’s legitimate leader.
Maduro, along with his wife, son and three others, is accused of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. They could face life in prison if convicted.
Here's the latest:
Crude prices rise and oil company shares jump after the US raid on Venezuela
U.S. stocks are rising at the open led by technology and energy stocks.
The S&P 500 rose 0.6% early Monday and the Nasdaq composite added 0.7%. The Dow gained 330 points, or 0.7%.
The price of U.S. crude oil gained 1% after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a weekend raid. Shares of Chevron and ConocoPhillips jumped after President Trump floated a plan for U.S. oil companies to help rebuild Venezuela’s oil industry.
Gold gained 2.4% and the price of silver soared 7.6%. Nvidia, Intel and other tech shares rose as the industry kicks off its annual CES trade show in Las Vegas.
▶ Read more about the financial markets
Mexico’s president rejects US intervention and defends efforts against drug trafficking
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum restated her opposition to the U.S. military intervention in Venezuela and defended her administration’s efforts to address drug trafficking from Mexico to the United States.
“We categorically reject the intervention in the internal affairs of other countries,” Sheinbaum said during her daily news briefing Monday. “Latin American history is clear and overwhelming. Intervention has never brought democracy, never has generated wellbeing, nor lasting stability.”
The president noted 300 tons of drugs seized by Mexican authorities and a drop in homicides during her presidency, but added that the U.S. has a responsibility to address its demand for drugs.
Sheinbaum said her administration had previously agreed with the Trump administration to collaborate and coordinate while respecting each country’s sovereignty. She said regional economic integration was the path forward.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will head to Capitol Hill to brief congressional leaders
Rubio and other top Trump administration officials will be discussing the Venezuela situation Monday evening with House and Senate leadership of the “gang of eight,” which includes top members of the Intelligence committees. The chairmen and ranking leaders of the other national security committees are also invited.
The Democratic leaders in Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, had publicly called for the briefing after leadership was largely kept in the dark about the surprise weekend operation capturing Maduro — despite Congress’s role in approving or rejecting certain military actions.
A war powers resolution that would prohibit further US military involvement in Venezuela without congressional approval is headed toward a vote this week in the Senate.
As a defendant in the US legal system, Maduro will have the same rights as anyone else
That includes the right to a trial by a jury of regular New Yorkers. But he’ll also be nearly — but not quite — unique.
Maduro’s lawyers are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he’s immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of state.
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega unsuccessfully tried the same defense after the U.S. captured him in a similar military invasion in 1990. But the U.S. doesn’t recognize Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate head of state — particularly after a much-disputed 2024 reelection.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer calls for a peaceful transition to democracy in Venezuela
But he declined to criticize the American raid that seized President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.
Starmer, who’s worked hard to forge a strong relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, said Monday that the U.K. supports international law. But he wouldn’t say whether he thought the U.S. strike on Caracas had breached it.
“It’s for the U.S. to set out its justifications for the actions that it’s taken,” Starmer said. “But it is a complicated situation. It remains a complicated situation. The most important thing is stability and that peaceful transition to democracy.”
Starmer did, however, join calls for Trump to cease his threats to take over Greenland.
Starmer told British broadcasters that Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was right to say Trump has no claim on the Arctic island, which is Danish territory, and “I stand with her.” Starmer added that “Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark are to decide the future of Greenland — and only Greenland and the Kingdom of Denmark.”
FBI Director Kash Patel says ‘We’re not done’
Patel said in an interview on “Fox & Friends” on Monday morning that the FBI is going to continue its “law enforcement mission” to find “anyone responsible or part of” drug-related activities he said are linked to the Tren de Aragua gang, which U.S. authorities allege worked with the Venezuelan government.
A U.S. intelligence assessment last year found no coordination between the gang and the Venezuelan government.
Patel said the FBI’s hostage rescue team, a tactical unit, was embedded with the U.S. forces in the mission to capture Maduro.
Who is the judge who’ll be presiding over Maduro’s court appearance?
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has handled numerous weighty cases in his nearly three decades on the bench, including matters involving Trump, the 9/11 attacks and Sudanese genocide.
Now, the 92-year-old Manhattan jurist is presiding over what could be his biggest case yet. Hellerstein is set to arraign Maduro and Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, at noon Monday, kickstarting a judicial assignment that was on hold for six years as Maduro eluded arrest after U.S. prosecutors first indicted him.
In the meantime, Hellerstein has been presiding over cases involving some of Maduro’s co-defendants.
In April 2024, the judge sentenced retired Venezuelan army general Cliver Alcalá to more than 21 years in prison. On Feb. 23, he’s scheduled to sentence a former Venezuelan spymaster, Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal.
Maduro arrives at courthouse
The trip across Lower Manhattan to the courthouse was swift. The vehicle carrying Maduro backed into a garage in the courthouse complex at around 7:40 am. From there, he will be out of public view until he appears in court, which is expected at around noon.
Extra security measures are in place around the Manhattan courthouse
Bicycle-rack style barricades are lining both sides of the street for several blocks around the main entrance on Worth Street, while police officers on foot and in marked cars patrol the area.
Behind the courthouse, near where inmates are brought in, Pearl Street is closed to foot traffic.
Inside the courthouse, men in U.S. Marshals Service windbreakers and tactical gear roamed the lobby. Outside, dozens of people are lined up, including reporters and paid line-sitters, looking to get a spot inside the courtroom. Some people have tents, seats and hand warmers to deal with the long wait and bitter cold.
A stand is set up with microphones from various news outlets in anticipation that someone connected to the case will speak.
Across the street, more than a dozen TV crews are set up to broadcast live, while all around, a few citizen journalists deliver their own updates into cell phones via YouTube and TikTok.
Maduro’s arraignment is set for noon before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein at the federal courthouse in Manhattan.
Who is Delcy Rodriguez, Venezuela’s new leader after Maduro’s capture?
As uncertainty simmers in Venezuela, interim President Delcy Rodríguez has taken the place of her ally Maduro, captured by the United States in a nighttime military operation, and offered “to collaborate” with the Trump administration in what could be a seismic shift in relations between the adversary governments.
Rodríguez served as Maduro’s vice president since 2018, overseeing much of Venezuela’s oil-dependent economy and its feared intelligence service, and was next in the presidential line of succession.
She’s part of a band of senior officials in Maduro’s administration that now appears to control Venezuela, even as U.S. President Donald Trump and other officials say they will pressure the government to fall in line with its vision for the oil-rich nation.
On Saturday, Venezuela’s high court ordered her to assume the role of interim president, and the leader was backed by Venezuela’s military.
▶ Read more about Rodríguez
US capture of Maduro divides a changed region, thrilling Trump’s allies and threatening his foes
In his celebratory news conference, Trump set out an extraordinarily forthright view of the use of U.S. power in Latin America that exposed political divisions from Mexico to Argentina as Trump-friendly leaders rise across the region.
“American dominance in the Western Hemisphere will never be questioned again,” Trump proclaimed just hours before Maduro was perp-walked through the offices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in New York.
The scene marked a stunning culmination of months of escalation in Washington’s confrontation with Caracas that has reawakened memories of a past era of blatant U.S. interventionism in the region.
The new, aggressive foreign policy — which Trump now calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” in reference to 19th-century President James Monroe’s belief that the U.S. should dominate its sphere of influence — has carved the hemisphere into allies and foes.
Saturday’s dramatic events — including Trump’s vow that Washington would “run” Venezuela and seize control of its oil sector — galvanized opposite sides of the polarized continent.
▶ Read more about the division of a changed region
Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.