Maduro’s Defense to Seek Dismissal of Drug-Trafficking Case on Immunity Grounds

Nicolás Maduro’s defense will ask a U.S. judge to throw out the drug-trafficking case against him, arguing that his position as Venezuela’s head of state gives him immunity from prosecution in a foreign court.

The first motions are due Wednesday, Sept. 2, before Alvin Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Maduro pleaded not guilty in a U.S. court on Jan. 5, two days after U.S. military forces captured him in Caracas. His lawyer, Barry Pollack, has also challenged the legitimacy of the U.S. military incursion into Venezuelan territory.

International law generally protects serving heads of state from criminal proceedings in foreign courts. But the defense faces a difficult path, according to six U.S. experts in international and criminal defense law cited by Reuters. They said the small number of relevant cases in the United States does not favor Maduro, including cases involving foreign leaders or people forcibly detained abroad.

The legal issue will turn in part on whether the United States recognizes Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate president. Washington has not recognized him since 2019, when he began a second term after elections held in 2018. U.S. authorities labeled those elections fraudulent, as they did the 2024 vote, while Maduro has defended the transparency of both contests.

Chimène Keitner, a University of California law professor and former State Department lawyer, said that in the few comparable cases, courts have effectively treated the executive branch’s decision to bring charges as a determination that immunity does not apply. The prosecution is also expected to argue that defendants can face trial in the United States even if they entered the country illegally or through unauthorized procedures. The trial is set for June 2027.

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In the few cases in which this has arisen, and there have been few and far between, courts have essentially treated the executive branch’s decision to bring charges as a determination in itself that there is no immunity.