NEW YORK: Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro returns to a US court on Thursday on criminal charges including narcoterrorism, a statute that has rarely been tested at trial and has a limited record of success.
Maduro, 63, led Venezuela from 2013 through his capture in Caracas by US Special Forces on January 3. He pleaded not guilty on January 5 to all US charges against him.
The 2006 statute at issue, enacted to target drug trafficking tied to activities the United States considers terrorism, has produced just four trial convictions, a Reuters review of federal court records shows – and two were later overturned over issues stemming from witness credibility.
The mixed record highlights what could be a central challenge for prosecutors in the Maduro case: persuading jurors that evidence from cooperating insiders credibly establishes a knowing link between alleged drug crimes and terrorism.
“The lesson of these two cases is not that the narcoterrorism statute is unworkable,” said Alamdar Hamdani, a partner at law firm Bracewell and former US Attorney in Houston.
“It is that the statute’s most demanding element — proving the defendant’s knowledge of the terrorism nexus — requires a quality of evidence and a standard of prosecutorial diligence that leaves no room for institutional gaps, name-spelling errors, or uncritical acceptance of what your witnesses tell you,” he said.
Prosecutors have yet to disclose who will testify against Maduro. But one former Venezuelan general indicted alongside Maduro has told Reuters he is willing to cooperate.
MADURO ACCUSED OF HELPING COLOMBIAN REBELS
Congress created the narcoterrorism statute 20 years ago to target drug traffickers who finance activities the United States considers terrorism. Since then, 83 people, including Maduro, have been charged with violating it. Thirty-one pleaded guilty to narcoterrorism or lesser charges, eight are awaiting trial, and dozens are not in US custody, according to the review.
The conviction reversals do not affect Maduro’s case, and defendants in those cases faced additional charges that were not overturned. Maduro also faces three other counts, including cocaine importation conspiracy.
Maduro, a socialist, is accused of leading a conspiracy in which officials in his government helped move cocaine through Venezuela in collaboration with traffickers including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which the US labelled a terrorist organization from 1997 to 2021. Maduro and his fellow indicted officials have always denied wrongdoing, saying the US charges are part of an imperialist conspiracy to harm Venezuela.
His lawyer, Barry Pollack, did not respond to requests for comment about the narcoterrorism law’s trial record or possible witnesses against Maduro.
A spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney’s office declined to comment on the same subjects.
LAW DEFINES TERRORISM BROADLY
Narcoterrorism carries a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence, twice the minimum penalty for ordinary drug trafficking. Both can result in life imprisonment.
The narcoterrorism law defines terrorism as premeditated, politically motivated violence against non-combatants.
