Former Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, reiterated this Thursday (19) to a federal court in New York that they do not have the resources to pay for their defense in the case in which they are accused of drug trafficking and stated that they are willing to present financial evidence, if the judge requests it, to reinforce their request to annul the accusation.
Maduro and Flores’ lawyers, Barry Pollack and Mark E. Donelly, claimed in a document sent yesterday to the judge in the case, Alvin Hellerstein, that the prosecutor’s office recognizes their right to request that the Venezuelan government pay for their defense.
Furthermore, they included sworn statements from Maduro and Flores in which they stated that they could not pay for the lawyers’ services and expressed their willingness to present financial evidence if the court requested it.
This statement was presented to the federal court for the Southern District of New York just days before the case’s next hearing, scheduled for Thursday (26).
Maduro and Cilia Flores were arrested in a US military operation in Caracas on January 3, and two days later they attended the first hearing in the case in New York, when they declared their innocence.
They face charges in American federal court on charges of narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and explosive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and explosive devices.
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions, has not authorized the Venezuelan government to pay the lawyers, which, according to them, interferes with the couple’s right to choose their own legal team.
OFAC imposed economic sanctions on Venezuela starting in 2015, with the aim of pressuring Maduro for political change in the South American country, and the US government does not recognize the dictator as the legitimate president of Venezuela.
In the document, the defense claimed that the refusal to allow Venezuela to pay legal fees violates the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution, which establishes the right to choose one’s defense, and the Fifth Amendment, which upholds due legal process.
The lawyers also argued that OFAC has on other occasions allowed “a third party subject to sanctions to pay the legal fees of a person also sanctioned.”
“Forcing defendants to accept a public defender not of their choosing is not, by definition, a solution to the violation of their right to choose their own lawyer,” the defense added.
For these reasons, lawyers asked Hellerstein that the charges be dropped as it is an “unconstitutionally flawed” process, or that a hearing be held to discuss the case.
“The only remedy is dismissal, given that this court cannot allow this case to proceed in violation of the constitutional rights of Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores,” the document pointed out.
Despite the allegations made by Maduro and Flores’ defense, estimates indicate that the dictator has billion-dollar assets.
A survey released in August 2025 by the NGO Transparency Venezuela indicated that the former dictator had at least 745 assets in 20 countries, which would total around US$3.8 billion.
The NGO released a note on the matter after the United States announced that it had seized around US$700 million in Maduro’s assets.
Transparency Venezuela reported that the former dictator’s fortune was formed with “dirty money, which stole the well-being of all Venezuelans.”
As these resources have illicit origins, from corruption and drug trafficking, according to the US indictment, the Chavista is finding it increasingly difficult to access the money.
In addition to the seizure of assets announced by the United States, shortly after the capture of the then dictator, Switzerland ordered the preventive freezing (for a period of four years) of assets held in the country by Maduro and people linked to him.
