Nicolas Maduro’s son Sunday, urged Venezuelans to take to the streets after the former President was seized by US forces and flown to New York to face criminal charges.
His defiant message comes amid speculation of betrayal within Maduro’s inner circle and as supporters staged small demonstrations in Caracas.
In an audio message shared on social media on Sunday, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, a congressman and the only biological son of the former leader, struck a defiant tone following his father’s dramatic removal from power.
“You will see us in the streets, you will see us by people’s sides, you will see us fly the flag of dignity,” he said, adding, “They want us to appear weak but we will not show weakness.”
Maduro Guerra, 35, is one of six people, alongside his father and stepmother Cilia Flores, accused by US authorities of narcoterrorism.
The charges form part of a sweeping case that also accuses the former Venezuelan leader of conspiring to import cocaine and possessing machine guns and destructive devices.
The swift and highly coordinated operation to capture Maduro from his hiding place in the capital, Caracas, and remove him from the country has triggered widespread speculation that someone within his inner circle may have betrayed him.
Echoing those rumours, his son said, “History will tell who the traitors were, history will reveal it. We will see.”
Despite the arrest of his father, Maduro Guerra expressed confidence in the survival of chavismo, the anti-imperialist socialist movement founded by the late Hugo Chávez, which has dominated Venezuelan politics for decades.
He said he believed the movement would endure even as its most prominent figure was taken into US custody.
Some Maduro supporters appeared to heed the call for mobilisation, with small groups seen demonstrating on the streets of Caracas on Sunday, waving flags and holding posters bearing the image of the ousted leader.
Maduro, 63, and his wife Flores, 69, were flown to New York within hours of being seized in a pre-dawn operation on Saturday. They were first transported to the USS Iwo Jima warship before being transferred by air to the United States.
Maduro arrived at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Saturday. The federal facility is one of the few in the US equipped to hold high-security defendants and has previously housed several high-profile inmates.
Law enforcement sources said Maduro was being held on one of the top floors of the jail with other high-profile detainees and was not in isolation. Details of Flores’s confinement status had not been confirmed by Saturday night.
In a superseding indictment unsealed on Saturday, US prosecutors accused Maduro and members of his family and cabinet of serious drug-related offences.
Announcing the charges, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts.”
Maduro is expected to be arraigned on Monday, a process that will formally begin the case against him in the US justice system and set deadlines for prosecutors to disclose evidence.
As legal proceedings move forward in New York, the former president’s son has signalled that the political battle at home is far from over, urging supporters to rally as Venezuela enters one of the most uncertain chapters in its modern history.
