Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro denies charges in New York court 

Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, both in handcuffs, being escorted by armed US agents. Picture: XNY/Star Max/GC

As deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro appeared in a New York court, the US state department posted an image of president Donald Trump on social media overlaid with the words, “This is OUR Hemisphere and president Trump will not allow our security to be threatened”.

At his hearing in Manhattan, Mr Maduro, aged 63, pleaded not guilty to four criminal counts: narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices. His wife Cilia Flores also pleaded not guilty.
Mr Maduro told the court: “I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country” before being cut off by the judge.

He also claimed he was “kidnapped” in a military incursion.

At an emergency meeting of the United Nations security council the US faced widespread condemnation for its “crime of aggression”.

Brazil, China, Colombia, Cuba, Eritrea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, and Spain were among countries that denounced Donald Trump’s decision to launch deadly strikes on Venezuela and snatch the couple to stand trial in the US.

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that the capture of Maduro risked intensifying instability in Venezuela and across the region. He also questioned whether the operation respected the rules of international law.

Samuel Moncada, Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, described the US action as an “illegitimate armed attack lacking any legal justification”.

However, Trump’s UN ambassador Mike Waltz defended the attack as a legitimate “law enforcement” action to execute long-standing criminal indictments against an “illegitimate” leader, not an act of war.

Speaking on a visit to China, Taoiseach Micheál Martin would not condemn the US seizure of Maduro as a breach of the international rules-based order.

Mr Martin said the Irish government has “never accepted the legitimacy of the Maduro regime” which, he said had been “particularly brutal and repressive”.

Delcy Rodríguez, who served as Nicolás Maduro’s vice president, was last night formally sworn in as Venezuela’s interim president.

Nicolás Maduro Guerra, Maduro’s son, pledged his support for Rodríguez.

“To you, Delcy Eloína, My unconditional support for the difficult task ahead,” he said. “Count on me, count on my family, you can count on our resolve to take the right steps in facing this responsibility that now falls to you, and we stand firm in absolute unity to achieve the objective of peace in Venezuela, to move the country forward, and for the return of Nicolás and Cilia.”

He then turned his remarks to his father, and said: “You made all of us in the family strong people, we are here doing our duty until your return.

The country is in good hands, Dad, and soon we will embrace each other here in Venezuela.

Meanwhile, Denmark’s leader has warned that an attack by the United States on a Nato ally would mean the end of both the military alliance and “post-second world war security”.

Fresh from his military operation in Venezuela, the US president said on Sunday the US needed Greenland “very badly” — renewing fears of a US invasion of the largely autonomous island, which is a former Danish colony and remains part of the Danish kingdom. Greenland’s foreign and security policy continues to be controlled by Copenhagen.

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, warned on Monday that any US attack on a Nato ally would be the end of “everything”.

“If the United States decides to militarily attack another Nato country, then everything would stop — that includes Nato and therefore post-second world war security,” Frederiksen told Danish television network TV2.

• Additional reporting by the Guardian