Venezuelans Cheer as Maduro Faces Federal Charges in Manhattan Courthouse
A smaller group of counter-protesters separated by police barriers decried what one called as “an illegal act of war.”
This article originally appeared in The City.
By Gwynne Hogan
Manhattan Voice
January 6, 2026
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, both pleaded not guilty to charges of narco-terrorism, cocaine conspiracy and machine gun possession.
“I’m innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the president of my country,” Maduro said during the hearing, the Associated Press reported. “I am here kidnapped.”
But on the corner of Worth and Baxter just outside of the courthouse building, Venezuelans applauded his ouster and arrest. Millions fled the country after persecution by the Maduro regime or as a result of the nation’s economic collapse over his more than decade in power.
“This is poetic for me, because the man who persecuted me, who destroyed my life, is in prison today,” said Carola Briceño in Spanish.
Briceño, a Venezuelan investigative reporter, fled the country three years ago after reporting for El Nacional about foreign money-laundering by the Maduro family.
Briceño said she hopes to return to Venezuela one day but fears months if not years of instability ahead. President Donald Trump has said he will “run” the South American nation and expects cooperation from Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president who was just sworn in as interim president.
“Maduro is just one piece. We’re not talking about 10 people, we’re talking about a mafia,” she said.
“What are you going to do in this moment to have a transition, what’s going to happen?” she added. “We need help.”
Ana Salas, a 31-year-old legal assistant, was overcome with tears as she stood in front of the courthouse. While she said she was concerned about the legal implications of the U.S. military entering her home country to topple and seize Maduro, Salas thought there was no other way to oust him.
She’d participated in protests for years before fleeing the country in 2017, ahead of the 2018 election. Maduro lost that contest badly, according to outside observers, but then claimed victory, remained in power and further clamped down on dissenters — accelerating a mass exodus from the once stable and prosperous nation rich in oil.
“There are so many emotions of happiness, but also of anguish,” Salas said in Spanish. “It’s a mourning for all the people who died, all of our brothers who died, and we're so happy.”
“I needed to be here to cry these tears,” she said, adding she worked nearby and asked her boss for a break to come stand with her fellow Venezuelans outside.
Maduro and Flores, who are being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Sunset Park, are due back in federal court on March 17. The pair were transported to Lower Manhattan in the pre-dawn hours Monday in an armored truck. The same vehicle slipped out the back of the courthouse shortly after the hearing concluded Monday afternoon.
‘Justice Exists and Truth Prevails’
Tens of thousands of Venezuelans made their way to New York City over the past few years as economic and social conditions in their country under Maduro deteriorated, with his defenders blaming that decline on American sanctions aimed at his regime.
Many of those who arrived in New York City started their time here living in its ad hoc migrant shelter system, which expanded rapidly under former Mayor Eric Adams as a surge of asylum-seekers crossing the southern border made their way to New York City.
By 2023, Venezuelans accounted for about 40% of the 113,000 people who had entered the migrant shelter system. Many have since moved out of shelters to homes in the five boroughs and beyond.
Much uncertainty still exists for Venezuelans living here. The Trump administration last year ended Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans, thrusting half a million immigrants into legal uncertainty. For some their TPS expired last fall, while others have the protection until it expires in the fall of 2026.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary of State Kristi Noem has said Venezuelans can apply for asylum, though that process has been severely undermined by the Trump administration.
Last month its attorneys in immigration court began arguing asylum- seekers had no right to apply for asylum in the United States and should do so instead in Uganda, Honduras, and Ecuador — which have all struck deals with the Trump administration to take in migrants the U.S. won’t accept.
Still, those outside the courthouse on Monday morning said they felt hopeful for the first time in years. Alejandro Rojas, 51, said he hoped he might “see my family again, return to my country, be able to have a country again.”
“I’m celebrating that justice exists, and truth prevails,” he said in Spanish.
‘Something That Never Should Have Happened’
Maduro has long denied the allegations against him, which were first outlined by federal prosecutors in a 2020 indictment.
A smaller crowd of several dozen anti-war demonstrators outside the courthouse decried the Trump administration’s methods of capturing the foreign leader, which was not authorized by Congress. U.S. forces killed at least 40 military personnel and civilians in the early-morning raid, in which they captured the country’s president and his wife.
“We believe that U.S. intervention in this case, just like most U.S. intervention, is an illegal act of war. It's a violation of sovereignty. It is something that should have never happened under any circumstances,” said Daniel Koh, who was part of the group protesting Maduro’s arrest and separated by police barricades from those cheering his capture.
Democrats have decried the military action. Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized the move over the weekend, calling it “an act of war and a violation of federal and international law.”
“This blatant pursuit of regime change doesn’t just affect those abroad, it directly impacts New Yorkers, including tens of thousands of Venezuelans who call this city home.”
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