Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will appear before a judge Monday, Jan. 5, 2026 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, according to CNN. Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were arrested at their Caracas compound in the middle of the night and brought to New York by the U.S. military to face drug and weapons charges. Court is scheduled for noon ET.
Elie Honig is a former prosecutor and CNN senior analyst. Honig predicts Maduro’s legal team will state the Venezuelan president has “sovereign immunity and therefore cannot be prosecuted for actions taken as the head of a foreign state or country.” Honig reminds readers, “we’ve never seen a situation exactly like this one.”
The executive branch has the power to make decisions about military actions, due to an existing precedent, according to Honig who has worked in the office of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and says it has a history of “trying the world’s most notorious gangsters, terrorists, and drug traffickers.”
Manuel Noriega, leader of Panama, was arrested by the U.S. military in the early 1990s. Noriega was convicted of drug trafficking in Miami. The Panamanian leader also claimed sovereign immunity.
Delcy Rodriguez is the current leader of Venezuela. U.S. President Donald J. Trump threatened in an interview this morning by saying, “if she doesn’t do what’s right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro.”
At 10:46 pm ET on Friday, January 2, 2026, the order was given and President Trump gave the message, “Good luck and godspeed.” The order launched 150 aircraft to Venezuela and began the raid on Maduro’s fortified compound. When the raid was over, Maduro was blindfolded and escorted to the United States on a U.S. battleship.
Jets, drones, and bombers took to the skies from 20 bases on land and sea while an extraction force of U.S. special forces and FBI agents flew by helicopter to the Maduro compound. The U.S. took out Venezuelan air defense systems, cut the power and blanket the area in darkness. One helicopter was hit but continued to fly its mission and U.S. military agents hit the ground.
At 1:01 am, the extraction force received real-time intelligence from the air and ground as they closed in on the Venezuelan leader while under fire. Trump watched it unfold on the live feed from Mar-a-Lago. The U.S. President stated Maduro and his wife attempted to escape to a steel-reinforced safe room before being apprehended.
Additional helicopters and drones provided suppressive fire and coverage so the extraction force could complete the mission, which was over the water at 3:29 am. “A few” U.S. troops were wounded in this mission, according to Trump, but no U.S. troops were killed.
On Saturday, Jan. 3, Trump told Fox News he warned Maduro to “give up” and stated he “had to surrender.” Maduro was prepared to negotiate by not evacuate, according to Axios.
By Jeanette Vietti
Sources:
CNN World: Maduro’s legal team likely to argue his arrest broke international law, former prosecutor says
The Atlantic: Trump Threatens Venezuela’s New Leader With a Fate Worse Than Maduro’s
Axios: How the operation to take out Venezuela’s Maduro unfolded
Featured Image Courtesy of Jenn Vargas’ Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
