Former Venezuelan President Maduro and Wife Ask Federal Judge to Dismiss Drug Charges on Immunity Grounds

Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home during a middle-of-the-night raid in early January, an operation the Trump administration described as a "surgical law enforcement operation" and which the administration named Operation Absolute Resolve. Maduro has described his capture as a kidnapping and called himself a prisoner of war.

In court filings, Maduro's lawyers argued that no American court has ever presided over the criminal trial of a foreign leader recognized by their own country as sitting head of state at the time charges were brought. "That is not an accident of history. It reflects a rule older than the common law: heads of state are exempt from the criminal process of any national court but their own," the lawyers wrote. Flores' lawyers separately argued that immunity "is an attribute of Venezuela's sovereignty, and only Venezuela may surrender it."

The defense raised multiple additional grounds for dismissal. Maduro's lawyers contended that even absent head-of-state immunity, conduct-based sovereign immunity applies because the actions alleged — including issuing diplomatic passports, deploying the military, and announcing foreign policy — were undertaken in his official capacity on behalf of a foreign sovereign. The defense also argued the indictment fails to establish that Maduro's alleged conduct took place in or was directed at the United States, and therefore does not meet the jurisdictional requirements of the narco-terrorism statute. Maduro "vehemently denies the allegations against him," the filings stated.