By Jack Queen and Jan Wolfe

NEW YORK, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Toppled Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty on Monday to narcotics charges after President Donald Trump's stunning capture of him rattled world leaders and left officials in Caracas scrambling to regroup.

"I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country," Maduro, 63, said through an interpreter, before being cut off by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court.

Maduro's wife Cilia Flores also pleaded not guilty. The next court date was set for March 17.

Dozens of protesters, both pro- and anti-Maduro, gathered outside the courthouse before the half-hour hearing.

Hours later in Caracas, Maduro's vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, was sworn in as Venezuela's interim president with words of support for Maduro but no indication she would fight the U.S. move.

A recent U.S. intelligence assessment determined Rodriguez would be best positioned to lead a temporary government in Maduro's absence, finding that opposition figures such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado or onetime presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez would struggle to gain legitimacy, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the classified report.

While many anti-Maduro activists had assumed this would be their moment, Trump appeared to have sidelined the Venezuelan opposition for now. Instead, he has suggested Rodriguez was willing to work with Washington.

In Caracas, senior officials from Maduro's 13-year-old government remain in charge of the South American oil producer of 30 million people, alternating between spitting defiance and possible cooperation with the Trump administration.

The intelligence assessment concluded that Rodriguez was among the few Venezuelan leaders capable of maintaining order, along with the interior and defense ministers, in a government dominated by ideological opponents of the U.S., the Wall Street Journal said.

Rodriguez's brother, Jorge Rodriguez, was reappointed president of the overwhelmingly pro-Maduro National Assembly on Monday. He pledged "to use all procedures, forums and spaces" to bring Maduro back.

Trump told NBC News the U.S. was not at war with Venezuela. Rather, "we're at war with the people that sell drugs," he said.

The U.S. would need to help address the South American country's problems before any new elections, Trump said, calling a 30-day timeline for a vote unrealistic.

"We have to fix the country first. You can’t have an election. There’s no way the people could even vote," Trump told NBC.

ACCUSATIONS OF COCAINE TRAFFICKING

Maduro is accused of overseeing a cocaine-trafficking network that partnered with violent groups including Mexico’s Sinaloa and Zetas cartels, Colombian FARC rebels and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang.

He faces four criminal counts: narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.

Maduro has long denied the allegations, saying they were a mask for imperialist designs on Venezuela's rich oil reserves.

Trump has made no secret of wanting to share in Venezuela's oil riches. U.S. oil companies' shares jumped on Monday, fueled by the prospect of access to those vast reserves.

While world leaders and U.S. politicians grappled with the extraordinary seizure of a head of state, the United Nations Security Council debated the implications of the raid, which was condemned by Russia, China and leftist allies of Venezuela.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres raised concerns about instability in Venezuela and the legality of Trump's strike, the most dramatic U.S. intervention in Latin America since the 1989 Panama invasion. U.S. Special Forces swooped into Caracas by helicopter on Saturday, shattered Maduro's security cordon and dragged him from the threshold of a safe room.

MADURO, WIFE APPEAR, PLEAD NOT GUILTY

On Monday morning, Maduro - his hands zip-tied - and his wife were escorted by armed guards in tactical gear from a Brooklyn detention center to a helicopter bound for the Manhattan federal court.

Shackled at the ankles and wearing orange and beige prison garb, Maduro listened to an interpreter through headphones as Judge Hellerstein summarized the charges.

Hellerstein asked Maduro to stand and confirm his identity. He replied in Spanish.

The judge told the couple of their right to inform the Venezuelan consulate of their arrests.

Prosecutors say Maduro has been involved in drug trafficking from the time he began serving in Venezuela's National Assembly in 2000 to his tenure as foreign minister and subsequent 2013 election as the late President Hugo Chavez's successor.

MADURO LAWYER PREDICTS LEGAL FIGHT OVER 'MILITARY ABDUCTION'

Maduro lawyer Barry Pollack said he anticipated voluminous and complex litigation over what he called his client's "military abduction." He said Maduro was not requesting his release but may later.

Flores' lawyer, Mark Donnelly, said she sustained significant injuries including severe bruising on her ribs and asked that she be provided X-rays and a physical evaluation.

Federal prosecutors in New York first indicted Maduro in 2020 as part of a long-running narcotics trafficking case against current and former Venezuelan officials and Colombian guerrillas. An updated indictment made public on Saturday added some new details and co-defendants, including Flores.

The U.S. has considered Maduro an illegitimate dictator since he declared victory in a 2018 election marred by allegations of massive irregularities.

Experts in international law have questioned the legality of the raid, with some condemning Trump's actions as a repudiation of a rules-based international order.

TRUMP ASSERTS OIL ASPIRATIONS

American oil companies will return to Venezuela and rebuild the sector's infrastructure, Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday.

"We're taking back what they stole," Trump said. "We're in charge."

Trump said then that the administration had tipped off U.S. oil companies about the operation, but in the NBC interview he said: "The oil companies were absolutely aware that we were thinking about doing something. But we didn’t tell them we were going to do it."

He added that the U.S. may subsidize the rebuilding of the country's oil infrastructure by U.S. majors, a project he said could be completed in less than 18 months.

CBS News, citing two unnamed sources, said representatives of oil majors Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron Corp would meet with Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Thursday.

Posted by: AAngeles/NET25 News