Venezuelan New Yorkers clung to their country’s flag outside of federal court in Lower Manhattan on Monday afternoon and wept with joy as deposed President Nicolás Maduro was arraigned on narco-terror charges.
Standing just across the street from 500 Pearl St., where Maduro professed his innocence and pleaded not guilty to narcotics trafficking, his people sang, smiled, and cried as the man they say made them flee their homeland was brought to justice.
Though some decried President Donald Trump for sending military forces into the Caribbean to forcibly remove Maduro and his wife in a hail of gunfire and dropped bombs early on Saturday morning, Venezuelans themselves were applauding the act on Monday morning.
“I think it’s the right thing, because it’s the only thing. It’s the only way to take off Maduro. We tried elections, we tried protests, and neither worked. So, this is the only way to make justice,” Miguel Martinez said.
Venezuelan natives crammed together outside the court, many poring over their cellphones in a desperate attempt to get updates about the arraignment. Others screamed and hollered at the courthouse with pride over their leader’s removal from office and prosecution.
Will Contreres was among them. He shared that he moved to America in the 1990s and expressed gratitude for Maduro’s capture.
“What the United States did in my country was great, it was fantastic. The guy in there is not our president,” said Contreres, referring to the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, which Maduro claimed to won even though multiple observers indicated his opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, won the “free not fair” election. Maduro had the results invalidated through a supreme court full of favorable appointees, cracked down on dissent, and clung to power over the will of the Venezuelan voters.
“Maduro is just a guy. I hope he gets sentenced to a lot of years,” Contreres added. “I have been living in the United States for 30 years, but my people are still there, my family is still there. My country is rich with oil but we don’t get nothing. I thank Donald Trump. I thank the United States for the wonderful work that they did. I don’t care what the other people say.”
However, just a few feet away, separated by NYPD officers and metal barriers, other protesters condemned the arrest of Maduro and brandished signs demanding his release.
“Trump is lying. Is this not the first time that they’ve told a lot of lies about Venezuela? He actually called Venezuelan resources ‘our oil.’ He said that. And so this is about him and his Wall Street backers wanting Venezuela to kneel and to bow down and to open up their doors for the extraction of oil and resources from Venezuela,” Sydney Loving said. “It’s all about his political agenda, and that’s just a cover story that is very weak.”
Following Maduro’s arraignment — during which he proclaimed himself to still be the rightful leader of Venezuela — the fallen president was ushered into an armored vehicle and sped out of the rear of the courthouse in a heavily armed convoy.
A white van carrying rifle-touting soldiers rode ahead of Maduro, all the while, one Venezuelan man spotted the motorcade and screamed at his former leader as he passed.
