Eight months after his arrest by U.S. forces, Venezuela's ousted president released images from a New York detention center, showing him smiling and flashing a victory sign
Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's deposed president, has released his first photographs from inside a New York jail, eight months after American forces detained him in a special operation.
The images show Maduro smiling, dressed in athletic clothing, and making a victory sign with his hands. These are the first pictures published from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held since January alongside his wife, Cilia Flores.
"I want you to know that we are standing strong," Maduro wrote in a message accompanying the photographs. In a separate post, he described sending them as a "small gift" to his grandchildren and supporters, thanking them for "every word, every gesture and every blessing." According to those close to him, the photos were actually taken on June 25, around Father's Day, and only reached his family by mail this week.
Maduro faces four charges in the United States related to narco-terrorism, all of which he denies. At his first court appearance in January, he declared: "I am innocent. I am an honest man. I am still the president of my country." He later described himself as a "prisoner of war." The trial for Maduro and Flores is scheduled to begin in June 2027.
The photographs were released as Venezuela and the United States finalized a major oil deal, under which the U.S. will gain control of 65 billion barrels of the country's oil reserves.
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