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As ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores appeared in the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan to be arraigned this afternoon, Maduro’s son, also named in the US’ sweeping indictment against the Venezuelan leader, spoke to the Venezuelan National Assembly, calling his father’s capture a ‘kidnapping,’ and declaring innocence.

Nicolas Maduro Guerra, named a defendant in the indictment which was unsealed by the US following the Caracas raid and capture on Saturday, said that his family was being persecuted and that their only crime had been attempting to preserve peace in the country. He called the US’ extraction that followed a months-long military campaign in the Caribbean Sea, and act of aggression, stating that no country was safe if the kidnapping of its Head of State was normalised.

“I take advantage of this podium to denounce that my name has been placed, just like that of the President and the First Lady, on the same accusations under which they were kidnapped. My person and my family are being persecuted because we are not for sale; we are not political merchandise.”