Eight months after being detained by United States troops, the deposed president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, has released images showing him smiling, dressed in a tracksuit, and making the victory sign with his hands. In one, he is wearing glasses, and in another, he holds them in his hand. These are the first images known of him from inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held since January with his wife, Cilia Flores, following his arrest as part of Operation Absolute Resolution. “I want you to know that we are firm,” Maduro wrote in the message addressed to his family, which accompanies the photographs.
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The images were made public two days after the government now led by his former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, announced an agreement with the Donald Trump Administration under which Venezuela cedes 65 billion barrels of oil to the United States, about 22% of the country’s total reserves.
Small gift of love and hope
I send these photos as a small gift to all my grandchildren, to the boys and girls, and to all the noble people who love us. pic.twitter.com/Z6u3130arn
— Nicolás Maduro (@NicolasMaduro) August 30, 2026
“I send these photos as a small gift to all my grandchildren, to the boys and girls, and to all the noble people who love us,” Maduro wrote on his X account, “I want you to know that we are firm, with hearts full of your love, that love that reaches us transformed into prayer, into constant action, into solidarity and true support. Infinite thanks for every word, every gesture, every blessing.”
Maduro’s circle explains that the photographs were taken on June 25, on the occasion of Father’s Day week. “He saw them on July 13 and we received them this week,” these sources say.
At his first hearing in January, Maduro pleaded not guilty to the four charges related to narcoterrorism he has been accused of in the United States. “I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,” he said through an interpreter. Flores also pleaded not guilty.
The trial against both will begin in June next year, according to a ruling last July by Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who responded to requests from lawyers and prosecutors who had agreed on the same schedule. But before the trial formally begins, Maduro has another important date marked on his calendar. On November 17, a hearing will be held to assess whether, as the defense argues, the man who was everything in the Chavista regime enjoys immunity as head of state, which would challenge the entire process. In previous hearings, Maduro himself described himself as a “prisoner of war.”
Little has emerged about Maduro’s life in prison. The first details were given by rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine at Easter, when they coincided for a few days in the same cell. The first thing the musician did upon leaving prison was to show a handmade SpongeBob doll signed by Maduro.
Later, his son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, told EL PAÍS part of his father’s routine, who went from being isolated in a cell to sharing a bunk with several inmates with whom he watches television. The first months in prison, his son said, were in solitary confinement, on a narrow bed. He was given coffee, the food seemed too spicy to him, and he had a desk to write and read the Bible “obsessively.” Maduro professed devotion to the Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba, but since being imprisoned, his messages contain constant biblical references.
Maduro calls Caracas every day, has 510 minutes per month for his conversations with the outside in calls that cannot exceed 16 minutes. Meanwhile, the city from which he governed is losing the signs that demanded his return.
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