Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, kidnapped in the United States, insisted this Thursday that the drug trafficking and corruption case against him be dismissed after the Trump Administration denied him the right to have the Venezuelan government pay for his defense.
In a sworn statement, the president states that on January 4, 2026, “I retained Barry J. Pollack and his law firm, Harris St. Laurent & Wechsler LLP, to represent me in this case” and “I understand that under the laws and practices of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, I am entitled to have the Government of Venezuela pay for my legal defense.”
“I understand that the Government of Venezuela is prepared to fund my legal defense, and it is my expectation that it will do so,” he says, adding that “I have relied on this expectation and am unable to pay for my own legal defense.”
The Venezuelan head of state notes that “if the court requests it, I will submit a financial affidavit to the court to demonstrate my inability to fund my own legal defense.”
In the letter, Maduro states that, “based on my belief that the Venezuelan government would pay Mr. Pollack and his law firm to represent me, Mr. Pollack filed an appearance in my case on January 5, 2026. Since then, I have been working with him on my legal defense.”
Referring to him as “my attorney of choice,” he affirms that he wishes “Mr. Pollack to continue representing me.”
The affidavit seeks to counter the maneuver by the Treasury Department, which, as Pollack denounced on Wednesday, granted and then revoked within hours a license that allowed the Venezuelan government to pay Maduro’s legal fees, violating his right to adequate defense under the Sixth Amendment.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) refuses to reconsider this censorship and will not grant a license that would allow the Venezuelan government to finance the defense.
U.S. military forces launched an attack on Venezuelan territory on January 3. The operation resulted in the deaths of dozens of Venezuelan civilians and military personnel, as well as 32 Cubans, and led to the kidnapping of President Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores, who have been imprisoned in a U.S. jail ever since.
IMAGE CREDIT: The Venezuelan head of state added that “if the court requests it, I will submit a financial sworn statement to the court to demonstrate my inability to finance my own legal defense.” Photo: EFE.
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]
