America's Talking - Maduro, wife plead not guilty in first court appearance

Episode Date: January 10, 2026

(The Center Square) – Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty as he was arraigned in a New York court on Monday, facing federal drug and weapons charges. Maduro described himself as a “decent man,” claiming to be the president of Venezuela, despite the U.S. and dozens of countries contradicting him as a legitimate leader. “I am not guilty … I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country,” Maduro told the court. “I am the president of Venezuela. I was captured at my home in Caracas, Venezuela.” Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAaleb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. Deposed Venezuela President Nicholas Maduro remains in U.S. custody one week after the U.S. conducted a massive air, land, and sea operation in Venezuela's capital to apprehend Maduro and his wife over allegations they led efforts to smuggle cocaine into the U.S. In the days since, President Donald Trump also has set his eyes on drug smuggled operations in Colombia and Mexico. Joining me to discuss this is the Center Square's White House Bureau Chief, Sarah Roderick Fitch.

Sarah, let's start with the operation in Venezuela. I think most everyone was shocked when we woke up last Saturday morning to the news. Yes, it was absolutely kind of came, a surprise and not a surprise. I mean, the president had been talking about it for some time, and has he indicated, and some of the other officials indicated after the strike, it had been. planned. It had been in the works for, I guess, for several days. They had originally planned, I think, for New Year's Eve, but weather didn't permit. So it kept kind of getting put off, and they just sort of waited for that window of opportunity. It just so happened. It was on Friday

night. Yes, very unexpected. And maybe, you know, that also helped maybe, too, with, like, you know, also assisted maybe with less, you know, civilian casualties, you know, through the middle of the night on a weekend. I'm sure that that may have contributed, although they won't say. But it did, it did, like I said, come out of nowhere, but then also it really didn't actually come as a surprise since the president had been saying he was going to do this for months. After the operation, the Trump administration announced that Maduro and his wife had been indicted by a federal grand jury in New York on various drug smuggling charges. And he now is going to face trial in the U.S. Just tell us a little bit more about that.

Yes, they will be, there's several charges. They'd actually been, this extends way back, actually, the prior Trump administration, and as well as the Biden administration, Biden administration also had a reward for them, or reward for Maduro put out. So this is a longstanding. This has been in the works for a long time. It'll be interesting to see as it is in New York, as it will be a federal court. But I know that I've kind of seen some.

stuff back and forth is, you know, possibly, I think, you know, in Florida, they're saying, hey, there could be some charges, you know, there's a lot of dissidents down there, Venezuelan dissidents. So it'll be interesting to see how this comes up. But yeah, both he and his wife, Maduro and his wife, have obtained pretty high profile attorneys. As of right now, there's no bail. They haven't, they didn't even request bail, but that could be something that they do in the works. We'll see if the, this judge, He's kind of an old guy. And it would be interesting to see if he does sort of allow bail.

What would happen? I mean, Maduro would have to see in the country. Where would you go? It would be interesting to see at this point. So there's a lot of questions still on there before we even get to that trial. I mean, their next hearing is going to be in March. So there's a lot to be seen. And when that trial is going to take place?

who knows and, you know, jury selection and all that. So it will probably be a very, very long process. In the meantime, Trump said members of his administration are going to help run the country of Venezuela, something that Trump in the past has said he doesn't want to get involved in. But with the instability now in Venezuela, the president said the U.S. is needed to help run operations in the country. Yes, yes. And it has been. it's a sort of a controversial issue. And the president even just said the other day, it's looking like it's going to be a longer process.

Friday, he's meeting with members. He's meeting with executives from oil companies. So he's kind of gone back and forth saying, hey, boots could be on the ground potentially to secure some of the oil, you know, sites and everything like that to kind of help do that. That's still up in the air. There's a lot of questions that are still lingering about as far as like how much control they're going to be having in Venezuela. Venezuela, they just announced

they're going to be releasing a lot of political prisoners, likely to be sort of a concession to the White House, starting, hey, we're trying to work with you here, sort of afraid because the president did threaten, hey, there could be a second wave of strikes. And at this point, so now, sort of the Venezuelan, whatever the interim government is in the meantime, that is there actually in place, seems to be cooperating or trying to cooperate with the White House. So that may make things a little bit easier. But I think the president and his officials kind of want to just have a thumb on the situation there at this point.

Trump next said Columbia could be next. But in recent days, the president has had a phone conversation with Columbia as president. and then he said that they're looking to schedule a meeting, a face-to-face meeting at the White House. Briefly tell us what's going on there. Yes, I mean, that definitely seemed like that may be happening. The president over the weekend was, let's do it, let's go in, let's, you know, strike Columbia. He had previously kind of called the Colombian president, was describing as sort of a drug. He was also that he was sort of a drug lord or whatever, that he was, you know, narco.

And so now that tune has definitely changed from what I've heard is that the Colombian president had reached out to President Trump and had discussed this and said, hey, after these strikes, probably like realizing the president's not playing around, the president may actually do that. And so I'm not exactly sure when that meeting will take place, but the president did say within the near future that the Colombian president will be, it will be at the White House. So it seems in the meantime, things have sort of tampered there a little bit, but now the president has his eyes on Mexico and striking cartels on land there in Mexico. So it's sort of changing. It's constantly, the situation is constantly, you know, it's fluctuating. And so it'd be interesting

to see if the Mexican president, Claudia Scheimer at Bonn, if she sort of steps up her game. The president has said she's a great person, but has criticized her leadership and saying, hey, basically the cartels around the country. So, but this is, this is, I think, part of the president's, this is his, this is his plan just sort of, you know, to sort of dominate the Western Hemisphere as sort of the long lines of the Monroe Doctrine he has talked about. And so he's really just sort of his, is sort of flexing his muscles there, I think, really. But it's also track, it's really, you know, cracking down on the, you know, the drug stuff. He's trying to get in on that. This is a very, it's a very complex situation, really, that's gone on. And it has broad

effects globally, not just in the Western Hemisphere, but also looking at the situation Iran. Iran may be falling. The president has also threatened to strike them. Iran has a close relationship. They've got a close relationship with a Maduro regime, as did Russia and Cuba and China. So this This is a much broader, these have much broader implications and we'll see where things go. But, you know, it could be a domino effect, really. Sarah, thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at the center square.com.