Both Nicolás Maduro and his wife, celia floresThey showed signs of injury when they appeared in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, according to CNN legal analysts Laura Coates.
The couple were detained by U.S. Special Forces on Saturday after a tense operation inside Venezuela.
“It was incredible to see Nicolás Maduro walk into a courtroom in the United States of America,” Coats began, before describing the seemingly frail condition.
“she [Flores] She had significant bandage damage to her right temple and forehead,” Coates said.
“They both seemed a little stoic and had trouble sitting up and getting out of chairs,” Coates continued. “Nicolas Maduro in particular had to support himself on the sides of the armrests of the chair to lower his body because he was very, very tall.”
Coates said both defendants wore headphones with Spanish translations, but Maduro appeared to understand English.
“I would note that at one point he answered directly to the judge without interpreting first, presumably that he might have understood, especially in English. I also noticed that during the course of the conversation he would look at his wife who, as I mentioned, had a bandage on her temple and a bandage on her forehead, which her attorney mentioned when discussing medical care,” she said.
Coates said that despite Maduro’s apparent physical frailty, “he’s confident. His voice is loud and he means every word he says.”
“He wanted to describe what he saw as the grave indignity of being taken from his home and held captive, and described himself as a prisoner of war,” Coates said.
Maduro and Flores have both pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking charges. The United States accuses them of conspiring to traffic “large quantities of cocaine” into the country.
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