Khaberni - In his first statement since his arrest on January 3 by US forces, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from his prison in Brooklyn, USA, told his lawyer that he is "fine and not sad, and that he is a fighter!"
These statements were relayed by his son Nicolas Ernesto Maduro Guerra, a deputy in the National Assembly, who specified during a meeting of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela on Saturday that the lawyers informed him his father is strong. He quoted him saying: "We are not sad (also referring to his wife Cilia Flores), we are fine, we are fighters."
Maduro the son, publicly called on Venezuelans to take to the streets and unite against what he described as a threat to national sovereignty, promising to defend the "revolution" and expressing unity and resistance in the wake of his father's arrest in an operation carried out by US forces.
Maduro Guerra stated that "in the most difficult and complex moments, the revolutionary spirit defines our identity. Unity is the key to following in the footsteps of our leader Chavez and the directions of our president Nicolas Maduro."
Caracas announced last Friday that it had begun talks with American diplomats.
Meanwhile, Washington confirmed that US diplomats visited the Venezuelan capital to discuss the reopening of the embassy. A US Department of State official reported that the administration is "closely communicating with the transitional authorities."
Meanwhile, the US State Department urged its citizens in Venezuela to immediately leave the country, pointing to risks of armed groups setting up roadblocks searching for American citizens.
Washington arrested Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro as part of a special US military operation carried out by elite forces in Caracas at the beginning of 2026, which ended with his transfer to New York to be tried in a federal court in Manhattan on charges of drug trafficking and weapons smuggling.
