Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, filed separate motions Wednesday in the Manhattan federal court seeking dismissal of the charges against them. Maduro argues that he remained Venezuela’s head of state for immunity purposes, notwithstanding the United States’ refusal to recognize him as the country’s legitimate president. Flores contends that she is also protected as the spouse of a sitting head of state.
Maduro’s attorney, Barry Pollack, filed two motions before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein. The first seeks the dismissal of the entire Fourth Superseding Indictment. In a supporting memorandum, Maduro argues that customary international law grants him status-based head-of-state immunity. His lawyers cite the International Court of Justice’s Arrest Warrant case, which recognized broad immunity from foreign criminal jurisdiction for incumbent holders of certain senior state offices.
Alternatively, Maduro claims conduct-based immunity because the indictment relies partly on actions allegedly performed through his governmental positions. His attorneys characterize issuing diplomatic passports, deploying the military and announcing foreign policy as official acts attributable to Venezuela.
Maduro’s second motion seeks dismissal of only count one, charging narco-terrorism conspiracy under 21 U.S.C. § 960a. His memorandum argues that the indictment fails to establish the statutory jurisdictional connection or a sufficient nexus to the United States and improperly applies the law to foreign conduct.
Flores’s separate motion seeks the dismissal of counts two, three and four. Her memorandum argues that she shares Maduro’s status-based immunity as the spouse of Venezuela’s asserted head of state and independently possesses conduct-based immunity. Her lawyers wrote that sovereign immunity “is an attribute of Venezuela’s sovereignty, and only Venezuela may surrender it.”
The court has scheduled oral argument on the first round of defense motions for November 17. The couple’s trial is scheduled for June 1, 2027. Both have been detained in Brooklyn since U.S. forces seized them in Caracas on January 3, 2026. They pleaded not guilty following their January 5 arraignment.
Maduro faces charges of narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy and two weapons-related offenses. Flores faces the latter three charges. The current Fourth Superseding Indictment alleges that they participated in cocaine-trafficking conspiracies that used Venezuelan governmental and military institutions to protect shipments intended for the United States.
The immunity argument faces significant obstacles. The United States ceased recognizing Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate president in 2019 and rejected his claim of victory in the 2024 election. In United States v. Noriega, courts rejected the former Panamanian leader’s immunity claim, emphasizing that the United States had never recognized him as Panama’s legitimate ruler.
Maduro’s lawyers distinguished Noriega, arguing that Maduro formally held Venezuela’s presidency and continued exercising presidential authority. The dispute therefore places customary head-of-state immunity against U.S. recognition policy, as examined in an analysis by the Due Process of Law Foundation.