Maduro’s case is expected to revive a legal debate over whether foreign leaders have immunity from U.S. prosecution, as the deposed Venezuelan leader prepares for a first appearance in a New York courtroom on Monday facing U.S. drug charges.
The case follows a trajectory that legal experts say is likely to draw parallels to Panama’s Manuel Noriega, toppled by American forces decades ago. The article said Maduro was captured Saturday, 36 years to the day after Noriega was removed by American forces.
Lawyers for Maduro are expected to contest the legality of his arrest and argue that Maduro is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of foreign state, a principle rooted in international and U.S. law. Experts said that argument is unlikely to succeed and was largely settled as a matter of law in Noriega’s trial.
Dick Gregorie, a retired federal prosecutor who indicted Noriega, said the immunity analysis depends on U.S. recognition of the leader. He said: “There’s no claim to sovereign immunity if we don’t recognize him as head of state,” adding that several U.S. administrations—both Republican and Democrat—have called Maduro’s election fraudulent and withheld U.S. recognition.
The article said Noriega died in 2017 after nearly three decades in prison, first in the U.S., then France, and finally Panama. It also said that in Noriega’s first trial, his lawyers argued that his arrest after a U.S. invasion was so “shocking to the conscience” that it violated his due process rights.
In ordering Noriega’s removal, the White House relied on a 1989 legal opinion by then-Assistant Attorney General Bill Barr, issued six months before the invasion. That opinion, as described in the article, said the U.N. Charter’s prohibition on the use of force does not bar the U.S. from carrying out “forcible abductions” abroad to enforce domestic laws. The article also said Supreme Court decisions dating to the 1800s upheld America’s jurisdiction to prosecute foreigners regardless of whether their presence in the United States was lawfully secured, and that Barr’s opinion is likely to be featured in Maduro’s prosecution.
Barr, in turn, pushed aside criticisms that the U.S. was pursuing a change of government in Venezuela rather than enforcing domestic laws. In a “Fox News Sunday” interview, he said: “Going after them and dismantling them inherently involves regime change,” and added that: “The object here is not just to get Maduro. We indicted a whole slew of his lieutenants. It’s to clean that place out of this criminal organization.”
The article said there are key differences between the two cases. It said Noriega never held the title of president during his six-year de facto rule, while Maduro claims to have won a popular mandate three times, and noted that the results of Maduro’s 2024 reelection are disputed even as governments including China, Russia and Egypt recognized his victory.
David Oscar Markus, a defense lawyer in Miami, said there are “serious questions about whether a U.S. court can proceed at all” and argued that Maduro has a “much stronger sovereign immunity defense” than Noriega because Noriega was not actually the sitting president of Panama at the time. The article said U.S. courts focus on the State Department’s view, which it described as considering Maduro a fugitive while offering a $50 million reward for his arrest.
Beyond legal doctrine, the article said sanctions could complicate Maduro’s defense. It reported that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been under U.S. sanctions for years, making it illegal for any American to take money from them without a Treasury Department license. It said Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, may want to cover costs, but is similarly restricted from doing business in the United States.
Curtis Bradley, a University of Chicago Law School professor, said the government will argue that running a large narco-trafficking operation should not count as an official act, while the article said the indictment accuses Maduro of facilitating the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by providing law enforcement cover, logistical support, and partnering with “some of the most violent and prolific drug traffickers and narco-terrorists in the world.”
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