Maduro says he’s a ‘prisoner of war’: Why that matters

From [HERE] Two days after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, 63, was abducted by special forces of the United States during an operation in the Latin American country, he appeared in a court in New York.

On Monday, Maduro pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including narcoterrorism and conspiring to import cocaine. In a blue and orange prison uniform, he listened to the indictment filed by prosecutors against him and his codefendants, including his wife and son.

The Trump administration has framed Maduro’s abduction as a law enforcement operation, arguing that congressional approval was not needed.

But in court, Maduro insisted he was a “prisoner of war” (POW).

What did Maduro say?

“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,” he said through an interpreter, before he was cut off by US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in a Manhattan federal court.

Maduro called himself a POW, a person captured and held by an enemy during an armed conflict.

Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, who appeared in court on Monday as a codefendant, also pleaded not guilty.

Other Venezuelan leaders have echoed Maduro’s position. On Saturday, his then-deputy, Delcy Rodriguez, appeared on state television alongside her brother, National Assembly chief Jorge Rodriguez, Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello and Defence Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, declaring that Maduro was still Venezuela’s sole legitimate president.

However, on Monday, the day when Rodriguez took over as Venezuela’s interim president, she posted a statement on social media offering to cooperate with Trump. In the statement, she invited Trump to “collaborate” and sought “respectful relations”.

“President Donald Trump, our peoples and our region deserve peace and dialogue, not war,” she wrote.

The Venezuelan ambassador to the United Nations, Samuel Moncada, said, “We cannot ignore a central element of this US aggression.

“Venezuela is the victim of these attacks because of its natural resources,” Moncada said, according to the UN website.

“Maduro is a prisoner of war as he said,” Vijay Prashad, the director of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research based in Argentina, Brazil, India, and South Africa, told Al Jazeera.

“The US declared war on Venezuela when Barack Obama signed his Executive Order 13692 in 2015 to say that the country was a threat to US national security.”

In March 2015, former US president, Democrat Barack Obama, signed an executive order declaring a national emergency over the “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security posed by the situation in Venezuela.

“Since then, the US has committed itself to a hybrid war against Venezuela. The kidnapping of its president in this state of war, during an illegal bombardment of the country by 150 military aircraft, is certainly, therefore, an act that can make Maduro a prisoner of war,” Prashad said. [MORE]