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The US trial of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, has been scheduled to begin on June 1, 2027, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Maduro, 63, and Flores have been held in a Brooklyn jail for more than seven months after pleading not guilty to federal charges related to drug trafficking and firearms possession.
The couple were captured on January 3 during a dramatic US military operation in Caracas that involved naval, air and ground forces.
The raid removed Maduro, who had led Venezuela since 2013, from power.
During a roughly 20-minute hearing, Judge Alvin Hellerstein set the trial date following a joint request from prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Supporters of Maduro gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse, waving Venezuelan flags and holding signs reading “Free President Maduro.” Counter-protesters described Maduro and Flores as dictators.
Maduro has called himself a “prisoner of war” and denied all four charges against him, including conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess such weapons.
Since Maduro’s capture, Venezuela has been led by his former vice president and close ally, Delcy Rodriguez.
Meanwhile, the United States has effectively assumed control over Venezuela’s oil exports, with revenues deposited into special accounts overseen by Washington.
In April, the United States permitted Venezuela to fund the couple’s legal defense, despite sanctions that had previously blocked such payments.
Maduro and Flores had argued that the restrictions violated their constitutional right to choose their own lawyers.
Maduro also faces a separate civil lawsuit in the United States filed by the families of five young men allegedly killed in Venezuela between 2017 and 2020.
The families accuse him of ordering extrajudicial killings as part of a broader pattern of state violence.
The lawsuit alleges that an elite security unit known as the Special Action Forces, or FAES, carried out the killings.
The unit was dissolved in 2021 following widespread allegations of human rights abuses, including concerns raised by the United Nations.
During his presidency from 2013 to 2026, Maduro faced widespread accusations of political repression.
His re-elections in 2018 and 2024 were rejected as fraudulent by numerous countries, including the United States.
Maduro is also expected to seek immunity from the civil proceedings on the grounds that he was a head of state, according to The New York Times.
