Nicolas Maduro Photo: Pedro Rances Mattey / AFP / Profimedia
A law professor at a British university claims that the charges against Nicolas Maduro by the United States are “shaky”, writes the BBC. Maduro is charged with narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of automatic weapons and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess automatic weapons and destructive devices.
President Donald Trump has described the charges against Maduri as a response to the “campaign of narco-terrorism” against the United States and its citizens.
But the argument is built on “very shaky foundations”, says Julia Buxton, professor of law at Liverpool John Moores University.
Buxton stated that Venezuela “is not a major exporter of cocaine”. “Most of the cocaine that enters the United States comes along the Pacific coast, through Colombia and Mexico,” said Julia Buxton.
“There is no fentanyl coming from Venezuela. The Trump administration had to invent the concept of a narco-terrorist Maduro to bring about regime change,” added Buxton.
She also said that Trump would like to activate American oil companies in Venezuela, but this prospect is not very attractive for these companies.
“There is a surplus of oil on the world market, and getting Venezuela's oil industry back on its feet will require billions of dollars of investment,” said Julia Buxton.
Nicolas Maduro, brought today before the court in New York to answer the charges of narco-terrorism. The Venezuelan leader faces a huge penalty
What are the charges against Maduro
Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is due to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Monday to answer narco-terrorism charges, days after he was captured by the US military.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were jailed in Brooklyn after US forces captured them in Caracas in a surprise raid over the weekend.
The two are scheduled to appear at the hearing scheduled for 12:00 pm local time (7:00 p.m. Romanian time) before federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein. It is not clear if they have hired lawyers or if they will plead guilty, writes Reuters.
Prosecutors say Maduro is the leader of a cartel made up of Venezuelan political and military officials who conspired for decades with drug traffickers and terrorist organizations to flood the U.S. with thousands of tons of cocaine.
Maduro was first indicted in 2020 in a drug-trafficking trial against Venezuelan officials and Colombian guerrillas.
In a new indictment unsealed on Saturday, prosecutors allege that Maduro personally oversaw a state-sponsored cocaine-trafficking network that collaborated with some of the world's most violent and prolific drug cartels, including Mexico's Sinaloa and Zetas organizations, the Colombian FARC paramilitary group and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua organization.
“As president of Venezuela and now de facto ruler, Maduro allows cocaine-fueled corruption to flourish for the benefit of himself, members of his regime and members of his family,” says the indictment filed by prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.
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