Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro Pleads Not Guilty to Torture Charges

( Breitbart )

Venezuela’s deposed socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, both pleaded not guilty in court Thursday to charges of conspiracy to commit torture.

Last week, new charges were brought against the pair, accusing them of heading a state-sponsored system of repression that led to the torture of numerous victims, including several American citizens.

Maduro and Flores remain detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn since January after U.S. forces arrested them through a law enforcement operation in Caracas, Venezuela. Both are also trial on separate drug trafficking charges set to begin in June 2027.

Per the new charges, the socialist dictator and his wife stand accused of having created a “violent system of repression” against political opponents and dissidents that led to the unjust imprisonment and torture of numerous individuals, subjecting them to “electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture, such as threats to harm and kill victims’ families.”

The alleged acts of torture stretch all the way back to 2013, the year Maduro assumed leadership of the nation’s socialist regime.

Several outlets observed that Maduro “started rambling” when asked to enter a plea to the charges on Thursday.

“I have seen that it is the sum of concepts, allegations that were already presented previously, of false accusations and false testimony against me,” the deposed dictator said, per Politico. 

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein reportedly had to interrupt Maduro mid-ramble and once again ask, “How do you plead, guilty or not guilty?”

“I reject this document in its entirety of false accusations and false testimony,” Maduro continued to ramble, prompting Judge Hellerstein to cut him off and say that a not guilty plea would be entered on his behalf.

Flores, for her part, reportedly said through a translator, “I am completely innocent. I am not guilty.”

Fox News reports that Maduro waved to the gallery and shook hands with his main attorney, Barry Pollack. The dictator reportedly appeared “thinner” than he had at previous court hearings and “looked through paper in front of him and took notes on a pad throughout.”

Nicolás Maduro was in charge of the Venezuelan socialist regime since March 2013 after his predecessor, late dictator Hugo Chávez, passed away from an undisclosed type of cancer.

Chávez personally appointed Maduro as his chosen successor on December 8, 2012 — a date that the Venezuelan socialist regime turned into a pseudo-holiday known as the “Day of Love and Loyalty to the Supreme Commander Hugo Chávez and the Homeland” to mark what ultimately became Chávez’s last public appearance.

Flores, as the dictator’s wife, was given the title of “First Combatant” by the socialist regime, a designation that purportedly elevated her beyond First Lady status.