Transcription
It's a long walk to face the wrath of American justice for Nicholas Maduro and his wife Celia. Dressed in matching tan prison uniforms, they're led in handcuffs from a chopper headed to their first court appearance, surrounded by heavily armed federal agents. It was an all hands-on deck operation getting the captured first couple of Venezuela from a detention center in Brooklyn to federal court in Manhattan.
The early morning odyssey began with the Madorises loaded into an armored truck, then transferred to an SUV, then to a helicopter for the brief flight to lower Manhattan. Another armored truck transported them to the federal courthouse for their arraignment. Security is intense. A ring of steel surrounds the courthouse where protesters have gathered, demanding Maduro be released. Steven Fabian is there.
In an extraordinary hearing, Maduro faced charges of drug trafficking, narot terrorism, and conspiracy to import cocaine. He told the judge he had been kidnapped. The judge asked, "Are you Nicholas Maduro Moros?" A defiant Maduro responded in Spanish, "I am the president of Venezuela. I consider myself a prisoner of war. I was captured at my home in Caracus." The judge cut him off. "There will be time and place to get into all of this." As for his plea, Maduro said, "I'm innocent. I'm not guilty. I am a decent man." Then the judge turned to Maduro's wife and asked for her plea. "Not guilty, completely innocent," she said.
After court, it was back to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a facility notorious for its conditions and violence. It's known as Hell on Earth and home, if you can call it that, to many accused high-profile detainees. So, who else is in there? Luigi Manioni, accused killer of the United Healthc Care CEO. He's on the fourth floor, while Maduro and his wife Celia are reportedly on the ninth floor in an isolation wing. Shawn P. Diddy Combmes was also held here during his trial last year. Glain Maxwell was an inmate here, as was the singer R. Kelly. Larry Lavine did time at the Metropolitan Detention Center. He's now a prison consultant. What are the conditions like inside? He's living on a mattress on a concrete slab. The toilet is a steel combination toilet. No moving parts. He probably is not getting any sleep because they're leaving the lights on 24/7. It's probably very cold in there because they run the air conditioning 24/7.
Eyebrows were raised when President Trump denigrated opposition leader Maria Karina Machado, who seems like the obvious choice to replace Maduro. After all, she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I think it would be very tough for her to be the leader. She doesn't have the support within or the respect within the country. She's a very nice woman, but she doesn't have the respect."
But according to the Washington Post, Trump is upset that she didn't turn down the prize and give it to him. If she had turned it down and said, "I can't accept it because it's Donald Trump's," she'd be the president of Venezuela today. So, who's next in the president's crosshairs? Colombia, Cuba, or Greenland. This map posted by top Trump aid Steven Miller's wife Katie shows Greenland covered in a US flag with the caption, "Soon, we need Greenland."