Manhattan: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was reportedly arrested in Venezuela and brought to the United States, has been lodged at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. The facility is known for housing high-profile federal detainees in the past, including Sean “Diddy” Combs and Sam Bankman-Fried, according to media reports.
As per a CNN report, the New York Police Department stated that Maduro was transported by helicopter to Manhattan and later taken in a convoy of U.S. Department of Justice law enforcement vehicles to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Maduro is expected to appear next week before a federal court in Manhattan to face charges related to drugs and weapons. Federal officers from the Justice Department have been deployed to guard the detention center in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, protests were reported in several major U.S. cities, including Washington DC, New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles, against Maduro’s arrest. Demonstrators braved extreme cold and rain to voice opposition to what they described as a military action. Some groups, however, were also seen raising slogans in support of the arrest. Protesters alleged that U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a military operation in Venezuela, following which President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were abducted.
During a protest in Los Angeles, Cameron Hurt, a leader of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, accused the United States of acting out of economic interests, saying it prioritizes the dollar over human lives and carries out bombings at night. Earlier, reports claimed that Venezuela was shaken by U.S. military strikes, with loud explosions heard in the capital, Caracas. It was alleged that U.S. forces entered the Venezuelan presidential palace and took President Maduro and his wife into custody before transporting them to the United States.
Reports further claimed that Maduro and his wife were initially held at a U.S. military base in New York, where Cilia Flores underwent a medical examination. Maduro was later moved to Manhattan under heavy security.
New York Mayor Criticizes Trump: New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani criticized President Donald Trump over the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, calling it a violation of federal and international law. The Venezuelan government, in an official statement, alleged that the attack was carried out to seize control of the country’s oil and mineral resources.
