Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) told Fox News’ Jesse Watters that the state is weighing state charges against Nicolás Maduro.
“I’ll also say that I know they indicted him in the Southern District of New York. We also have the right as a state to bring pertinent charges in state court, and we’re working on that,” Gov. DeSantis said. “Our attorney general is leading that effort. And you may see charges filed in a place like Miami or Doral, which we’re entitled to do.”
“Both Hugo Chávez and Maduro, they tanked the country of Venezuela, massive oil reserves, gold reserves, affluent country, and basically the Marxist takeover destroyed it and destroyed their society so that people were left to eat trash,” he added. “Millions and millions of people fled out of Venezuela. So this is being greeted very positively.”
Maduro pleaded not guilty on January 5 to federal drug trafficking charges. “I am not guilty,” Maduro said in Spanish to the judge, as per NBC News. He added, “I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country.” Maduro further stated, “I am a kidnapped president. I am a prisoner of war.”
The indictment against Maduro accuses Venezuelan leaders of having “abused their positions of public trust and corrupted once-legitimate institutions to import tons of cocaine into the United States” for over 25 years. Maduro is “at the forefront of that corruption and has partnered with his co-conspirators to use his illegally obtained authority and the institutions he corroded to transport thousands of tons of cocaine to the United States.” The indictment states that Maduro “moved loads of cocaine under the protection of Venezuelan law enforcement.”
