MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

New York judge sets June 2027 for the start of Maduro and Cilia Flores's trial

Maduro, 63, is charged with conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, cocaine importation, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices

Federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein set June 1, 2027, as the preliminary start date for the trial of former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in the narcoterrorism case they face in the United States. The decision came on Wednesday during the case's third hearing before the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, which lasted only a few minutes.

Maduro, 63, is charged with conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, cocaine importation, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices. Flores, 69, faces charges linked to drug importation and weapons possession. Both have pleaded not guilty to all counts and have been held at a federal prison in Brooklyn since January 3, when they were captured in Caracas during a US military operation.

The schedule, jointly proposed by prosecutors and the defense the previous day, contemplates two rounds of pretrial motions. The defense will file a first set before September 2 arguing Maduro's immunity as the head of a sovereign state, one of its central contentions. According to his lawyer, Barry Pollack, if that motion succeeds, the second round would not be necessary. Prosecutors expect to complete the handover of unclassified evidence by September 22 and of classified material by November 15. Hellerstein called a hearing for November 17 to debate those arguments.

“This is a realistic schedule, we don't think it will be delayed,” Pollack said, after the judge voiced doubts about the parties' ability to meet the deadlines set for submitting evidence, witnesses, and experts.

Demonstrators for and against the proceedings gathered near the courthouse, with police present to prevent incidents, as had happened at the March hearing. From Caracas, the former president's son and lawmaker for the governing PSUV, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, called the process “unjust” and demanded his parents' release.

The case earlier saw a dispute over funding for the defense: Maduro and Flores argued they could not pay private lawyers because of US sanctions and because they were barred from using Venezuelan state funds. In April, Washington authorized Venezuela to cover their legal representation.

Since the capture, Venezuela has been governed by former vice-president Delcy Rodríguez, under whose tenure the United States eased sanctions on the oil industry. The former president also faces other civil proceedings in the United States: last week, a Miami judge issued a default judgment ordering him, along with other officials, to pay $314 million to three US citizens.