#maduro-indictment

#maduro-indictment

More than 600 people may be in custody for political reasons, one Venezuelan rights group estimates. Venezuela's acting president has signed into law an amnesty bill that could see hundreds of politicians, activists and lawyers released soon, while tacitly acknowledging what the country has denied for years that it has political detainees in jail. The law, signed on Thursday, in effect reverses decades of denials.

In a 22-page memo, T Elliot Gaiser, the top lawyer at the office of legal counsel (OLC) briefly discussed international law and the UN charter, which says a nation cannot use force inside another country without its consent, a self-defense rationale or the permission from the UN security council. But Gaiser stopped short of deciding whether the operation violated international law, arguing it did not matter as long as Donald Trump had the authority under domestic law to authorize the operation.

The superseding indictment alleges that Maduro and other top Venezuelan public officials have, for the past two decades, worked closely with international drug trafficking organizations to ship illicit drugs into the US while enriching themselves. The validity of the US complaint against Maduro and wife Cilia Flores is likely to be challenged in federal court in the New York on Monday over whether, as a foreign head of state, he can be put on trial in the US.

Nicolás Maduro wasn't due to arrive at his arraignment yesterday in downtown Manhattan until noon, but a large crowd had already formed outside the federal courthouse by 9 a.m. Actually, two crowds. One had come to tell Donald Trump to keep his hands off Venezuela. The other, which seemed largely Venezuelan, had come to celebrate. Maduro was, until Saturday, a widely hated ruler. His last election campaign consisted of threatening his people with a "bloodbath" if he lost.