Former Venezuelan general willing to cooperate with prosecutors
\n washington
\nOusted Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro returns to a US court on Thursday on criminal charges including narcoterrorism, a statute that has rarely been tested at trial and has a limited record of success.
\nMaduro, 63, led Venezuela from 2013 through his capture in Caracas by US special forces on January 3. He pleaded not guilty on January 5 to all US charges against him.
\nThe 2006 statute at issue, enacted to target drug trafficking tied to activities the United \u200cStates considers terrorism, has produced just four trial convictions, a Reuters review of federal court records shows \u2014 and two were later overturned over issues stemming from witness credibility.
\nThe mixed record highlights what could be a central challenge for prosecutors in the Maduro case: persuading jurors that evidence from cooperating insiders credibly establishes a knowing link between alleged drug crimes and terrorism.
\n\u201cThe lesson of these two cases is not that the narcoterrorism statute is unworkable,\u201d said Alamdar Hamdani, a partner at law firm Bracewell and former US Attorney in Houston.
\n\u201cIt is that the statute\u2019s most demanding element \u2014 proving the defendant\u2019s knowledge of the terrorism nexus \u2014 requires a quality of evidence and a standard of prosecutorial diligence that leaves no room for institutional gaps, name-spelling errors, or uncritical acceptance of what your witnesses tell you,\u201d he said.
\nProsecutors have yet to disclose who will testify against Maduro. But one former Venezuelan general indicted alongside Maduro has told Reuters he is willing to cooperate.<\/p>\n
Maduro accused of helping Colombian rebels
\nCongress created the narcoterrorism statute 20 years ago to target drug traffickers who finance activities the United States considers terrorism. Since then, 83 people, including Maduro, have been charged with violating it. Thirty-one pleaded guilty to narcoterrorism or lesser charges, eight are awaiting trial, and dozens are not in US custody, according to the review.
\nThe conviction reversals do not affect Maduro\u2019s case, and defendants in those cases faced additional charges that were not overturned. Maduro also faces three other counts, including cocaine importation conspiracy.
\nMaduro, a socialist, is accused of leading a conspiracy in which officials in his government helped move cocaine through Venezuela in collaboration with traffickers including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which the US labeled a terrorist organisation from 1997 to 2021. Maduro and his fellow indicted officials have always denied wrongdoing, saying the US charges are part of an imperialist conspiracy to harm Venezuela.
\nHis lawyer, Barry Pollack, did not respond to requests for comment about the narcoterrorism law\u2019s trial record or possible witnesses against Maduro.
\nA spokesman for the Manhattan US Attorney\u2019s office declined to comment on the same subjects.<\/p>\n
Law defines terrorism broadly
\nNarcoterrorism carries a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence, twice the minimum penalty for ordinary drug trafficking. Both can result in life imprisonment.
\n The narcoterrorism law defines terrorism as premeditated, politically motivated violence against non-combatants.
\n\u201cIf you take the legal definition of terrorism and terrorist activity, you can paint a pretty broad brush with the kind of activity we\u2019re talking about,\u201d said Shane Stansbury, a professor at Duke University School of Law and former federal prosecutor.
\nTo convict \u200cMaduro, prosecutors must show that he knew the drug trafficking he allegedly facilitated resulted in a financial benefit for a group that engaged in activities the United States considered terrorism, even if he had other aims.
\n\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be the motivation,\u201d said Artie McConnell, a former federal prosecutor and current partner at law firm BakerHostetler.
\nIn the first narcoterrorism trial in 2008, an Afghan man with alleged ties to the Taliban was convicted of helping a Drug Enforcement Administration informant buy opium and heroin. But in 2021, a judge threw out the narcoterrorism count after an appeals court ruled his lawyer failed to adequately challenge the only witness tying him to the Taliban.
\nIn another case, a jury deadlocked in the 2011 trial of an accused Afghan trafficker. He was convicted at a second trial in 2012, but the narcoterrorism count was thrown out in 2015 after prosecutors acknowledged that a US government agency considered the cooperating witness who linked him to the Taliban a \u201cfabricator.\u201d
\nThe 2015 narcoterrorism trial conviction of a Colombian man for trying to ship cocaine for the FARC and attempting to buy weapons for the group has been upheld.
\nA fourth narcoterrorism trial resulted in a guilty verdict earlier this week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Venezuelan general willing to cooperate with prosecutors washington Ousted Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro returns to a US court on Thursday on criminal charges including narcoterrorism, a statute that has rarely been tested at trial and has a limited record of success. Maduro, 63, led Venezuela from 2013 through his capture in Caracas by US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n