Deputy Nicolás Maduro Guerra, son of Nicolás Maduro, said this Monday that he trusts that “sooner rather than later” his father will be free in Venezuela. and Cilia Flores, captured on Saturday by the United States amid attacks in Caracas and three nearby states.
“Sooner rather than later they will be with us and, thanks to all the struggle of the people mobilized inside and outside the country, they will return, our eyes will see it, we will be witnesses of that historic moment, have no doubt that this will happen,” said the deputy at the installation of the new five-year legislative period.
Maduro Guerra assured that his father and Flores, whom he called his “second mother,” were “kidnapped” for “being revolutionaries” and because “they did not and will not sell themselves.”
“I take advantage of this forum to denounce that my name has been put, like that of my father and the first combatant, in the same accusation, (…) my person and my family are being persecuted because we are not affordable,” he said.
Maduro and Flores were captured by US forces during the attacks carried out in Caracas and three surrounding states, and taken this Monday before a federal court in New York in what will be their first hearing after their transfer to the North American country.
Maduro Guerra said that he has faith that “sooner rather than later”, and “thanks to all the struggle of the people mobilized inside and outside the country”, both will be free and in Venezuela, which will be – he foresaw – a “historic moment.”
“We are here until you return, the country is in good hands, dad, and soon we are going to hug each other here in Venezuela,” he said.
In that sense, he announced his “unconditional support” for the executive vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, who took over as the president in charge of the country after an order from the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ).
“Maybe they kidnapped Nicolás and Cilia, but they did not kidnap the conscience of a people that has decided to be free. To you, Delcy Eloína, my unconditional support for the difficult task that lies before you. Count on me, count on my family, count on our firmness to take the correct steps in facing this responsibility that falls to you today,” he added.
The ruler had already been charged in Manhattan in March 2020, in a case based on an investigation by the DEA anti-drug agency in which charges related to narcoterrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine and crimes with weapons and destructive devices already appeared.
On the same Saturday, when Maduro and his wife were arrested, the court made public an accusation presented by the Prosecutor’s Office that expands that of 2020 and once again identifies him as the leader of a drug trafficking and narcoterrorism network that for more than two decades would have used the Venezuelan State to introduce large quantities of cocaine into the United States.
The accusation, known as “substitutionary imputation”, prosecutes Cilia Flores and the son of the head of state for the first time.
In total, there are six people charged: in addition to Maduro and Flores, it includes Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, son of the Chavista leader and recently inaugurated as a deputy.
