“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,” Maduro, 63, said through an interpreter, before being cut off by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court.
Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores also pleaded not guilty.
The next court date was set for March 17.
Dozens of protesters, both pro- and anti-Maduro, gathered outside the courthouse before the half-hour hearing.
Inside, as he stood shackled at the ankles and wearing orange and beige prison garb, Maduro declared he had been “kidnapped” and remained president of Venezuela. He listened to an interpreter through headphones as Hellerstein summarized the charges.
Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network with international drug cartels and faces four criminal counts: narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
Maduro has long denied the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on Venezuela’s rich oil reserves.
Maduro’s defense lawyer Barry Pollack stated that he anticipated voluminous and complex litigation over what he called his client’s “military abduction.”
Asked by Reuters about the report, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said, “The President and his national security team are making realistic decisions to finally ensure Venezuela aligns with the interests of the United States.”
While many anti-Maduro activists had assumed this would be their moment, Trump appeared to have sidelined the Venezuelan opposition for now. Instead, he has suggested Rodriguez was willing to work with Washington.
Leavitt told Fox News that Secretary of State Marco Rubio was in “constant correspondence” with the remaining Maduro government, and that Washington maintained “leverage” over Caracas.
In Caracas, senior officials from Maduro’s 13-year-old government remained in charge of the South American oil producer of 30 million people, alternating between angry defiance and possible cooperation with the Trump administration.
The intelligence assessment concluded that Rodriguez was among the few Venezuelan leaders capable of maintaining order, along with the interior and defense ministers, in a government dominated by ideological opponents of the U.S., the Wall Street Journal added.
