Maduro says ‘I was captured’ as he pleads not guilty to drug-trafficking charges

Nicolas Maduro (Matias Delacroix/AP)

A defiant Nicolas Maduro declared himself the “president of my country” as he protested against his capture and pleaded not guilty to the federal drug-trafficking charges that the Trump administration used to justify removing him from power.

“I was captured,” Maduro said in Spanish as translated by a courtroom reporter before being cut off by the judge.