Protesters calling for freedom for ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro rallied outside a Manhattan court on Thursday (March 26), alongside Venezuelans.

“As a Venezuelan, it's important for me to be here to witness, perhaps indirectly, Nicolas Maduro, the man we may need to blame for everything Venezuelans have suffered these last years, face some sort of justice," said Carlos Egana, 30, a writer and educator who moved to New York City from Caracas, Venezuela, four years ago.

Maduro is in court Thursday where he will argue that drug trafficking charges against him should be thrown out more than two months after he and his wife were captured in a surprise U.S. military raid in Caracas.

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been embroiled in a dispute over U.S. sanctions that prevent the Venezuelan government from paying for the couple's legal defense.

Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have each pleaded not guilty to charges including narcoterrorism conspiracy and are jailed in Brooklyn pending trial.

They have asked U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the charges, saying their inability to rely on Venezuelan public funds is interfering with their right to have a lawyer of their choosing under the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Their lawyers have said Maduro and Flores cannot afford to pay their defense fees on their own.

Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has said he wants to withdraw from the case if Hellerstein doesn't dismiss the charges and the Venezuelan government cannot pay his fees. It was unclear how much Pollack is charging Maduro for his services. Pollack did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. special forces captured Maduro and Flores in a surprise January 3 raid on their Caracas residence and flew them to New York to face drug trafficking charges, an operation detailed in a Reuters examination of the covert mission and its geopolitical fallout.

The hearing was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 GMT). For their previous court appearance in January, a helicopter whisked them from the jail into Manhattan.

Maduro and his wife, who will also be in court, say that under Venezuelan law and custom, the government pays the expenses of the president and first lady.

Prosecutors argue that because the U.S. has not recognized Maduro as Venezuela's legitimate president since 2019, he and Flores should not expect the U.S. government to allow Venezuela to pay their legal fees. The prosecutors say Maduro and Flores can be assigned public defenders if they cannot afford their own lawyers.

Maduro faces four felony charges including narcoterrorism conspiracy, which criminalizes drug trafficking to help finance activities the United States considers terrorism. The statute has rarely been tested at trial, and two of three trial convictions have been overturned over issues stemming from witness credibility, a Reuters analysis of court records found.

During his first term in the White House, President Donald Trump ramped up sanctions on Venezuela over allegations that Maduro's government was corrupt and undermining democratic institutions. Washington called Maduro's 2018 reelection fraudulent.

Maduro dismissed those accusations, along with allegations of his participation in drug trafficking, as pretextual justifications for what he called a U.S. desire to seize control of the South American OPEC nation's vast oil reserves.

Relations between Caracas and Washington have improved since Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's former vice president, became interim president after his capture.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 26, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

1. PRO- AND ANTI-MADURO PROTESTERS OUTSIDE MANHATTAN COURT, SOME WAVING VENEZUELAN FLAGS, OTHERS HOLDING SIGNS READING (English) “FREE PRESIDENT MADURO”

2. PEOPLE HOLDING VENEZUELAN FLAG AND EFFIGY OF OUSTED VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO IN ORANGE PRISON GARB

3. SIGNS READING (English) “FREE PRESIDENT MADURO”

4. SIGN READING (English) “FREE PRES. MADURO & FIRST COMBATANT CILIA FLORES”

5. POLICE SETTING UP BARRICADE IN FRONT OF PROTEST

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, RESIDENT, THOMAS BURKE, 61, PRESIDENT OF SMALL TRADE UNION, SAYING:

“We're here to demand freedom for President Maduro and First Lady Celia Flores. We've come from all across the U.S. and I’m from Michigan, myself, to demand that they be set free by the Trump administration. They've done nothing wrong. They've committed no crimes. Like Alex Saab, the Venezuelan diplomat. They're just being abused by the U.S. government and we demand their freedom.”

7. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT AFFILIATED WITH BROOKLYN AGAINST WAR, JACOB MULDOON, 26, UNION MEMBER SAYING:

“Brooklyn is housing right now the prisoners of war, Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores. And we have so many other things as a city, as a country, to spend money on that's not housing people that we kidnapped, that is like prisoners of war and spending money on war and aggression. So I'm here standing up against that and demanding that these charges be dropped and that Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores be freed.”

8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) FOREST HILLS, QUEENS, RESIDENT, ADRIANA MALVE, 44, WORKS FOR MARKETING COMPANY, SAYING:

“As a Venezuelan, for me, it is so important to be here representing my country, the people that want freedom. And I’m so like upset with all these people there are no… Even Venezuela, they've never been there. And they're here protesting because they got paid. This is a workday for them. You know, they start protesting at eight in the morning. But that's why we are here. Real Venezuelans. Telling people, telling the world what is true in my country. We still have a dictatorship. We still are in a process to be free. So that's why we're here.”

9. VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS (4 SHOTS)

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT, CARLOS EGANA, 30, WRITER AND EDUCATOR, WHO LEFT CARACAS, VENEZUELA, FOUR YEARS AGO, SAYING:

“As a Venezuelan, it's important for me to be here to witness, perhaps indirectly, Nicolas Maduro, the man we may need to blame for everything Venezuelans have suffered these last years, face some sort of justice.”

11. PERSON WALKING IN FRONT OF PROTESTERS CARRYING EFFIGY OF OUSTED VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO IN ORANGE PRISON GARB

12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) NEW YORK CITY RESIDENT, CARLOS EGANA, 30, WRITER AND EDUCATOR, WHO LEFT CARACAS, VENEZUELA, FOUR YEARS AGO, SAYING:

“We Venezuelans have had to live through hell for 20 something years. And for us to see that these people that have very willingly plunged us into so much chaos and fear, well, it's very thrilling to see that at least one of them will pay for his crimes.”

13. VARIOUS OF PERSON HOLDING EFFIGY OF OUSTED VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT NICOLAS MADURO IN ORANGE PRISON GARB, SURROUNDED BY PRO-MADURO PROTESTERS (2 SHOTS)

14. WIDE OF PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNER, WAVING FLAGS AND SIGNS

15. PROTESTERS HOLDING VENEZUELAN FLAGS, “FREE PRESIDENT MADURO” SIGNS, IN FRONT OF COURT

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 26, 2026) (POOL – Access all)

16. VARIOUS OF PRO- AND ANTI-MADURO PROTESTERS ACROSS STREET FROM COURT (3 SHOTS)

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (MARCH 26, 2026) (REUTERS – Access all)

17. PLAZA IN FRONT OF COURT

18. FRONT ENTRANCE TO COURT