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Venezuela’s deposed leader Nicolás Maduro said on social media Sunday that he was “standing firm,” while sharing photographs from the New York prison where he has been held since his capture by U.S. forces.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were seized in Caracas during a U.S. military operation in January. They are being detained in a Brooklyn, New York, jail on drug trafficking and firearms possession charges, which they deny.
“I am sending these photos as a small gift to all my grandchildren, to the boys and girls, and to all the good people who love us,” he wrote on the Telegram messaging service.
“I want you to know that we are standing firm, with our hearts full of your love,” he added.
In the two photographs, Maduro is wearing a gray tracksuit and making peace signs with his hands. He appears to have lost weight since his capture.
Although the photographs emerged Sunday, camera data indicates they were taken on June 25, a day after twin deadly earthquakes killed more than 6,500 people and caused widespread destruction in northern Venezuela.
“We will remain strong, calm and confident: God is with us. God will provide. Venezuela will rise again,” he concluded.
The message was posted two days after his successor, interim President Delcy Rodriguez, announced a “historic” oil agreement allowing the United States to operate oil fields in Venezuela.
President Trump said Friday that the deal grants the United States majority control of over 60 billion barrels of proven Venezuelan oil reserves. A U.S. official told CBS News that the venture is a “joint project of the U.S. government and an experienced private operator in Venezuela.”
“One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied,” Mr. Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday. “The ‘topping out’ process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States.”
The U.S. government will control 55% of the joint venture, split between equity in the venture and the ability to obtain oil from it at cost, the official said.
Rodriguez is governing under intense pressure from Washington and says she has “chosen the path of diplomacy” with the United States because she wants Venezuela to become an “energy powerhouse.”
Maduro does not have access to newspapers or the internet in prison, but he is allowed to speak by telephone with his family and lawyers for approximately 300 minutes a month, with a maximum of 15 minutes per call, according to a source close to the former leader.
His son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, says he is in good shape and spends his time studying the Bible.
Maduro and his wife’s trial in New York will begin on June 1, 2027, a federal court in New York announced in late July. Both have pleaded not guilty. They face potential life prison sentences if a jury agrees that they were part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S.
U.S. prosecutors say Maduro carried out a conspiracy to move thousands of tons of cocaine into the U.S. by colluding with Venezuelan law enforcement to help drug kingpins.
“I am not guilty. I am a decent man, the constitutional president of my country,” he said in Spanish at his arraignment in January.
