Venezuela’s socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro made his first public comment since capture during a handcuffed perp walk Saturday night inside New York City’s DEA headquarters before he and his wife were roundly jeered as they were locked up.
The NY Post reports his comments were short, to the point and directed at agents escorting him, confidently wishing them a “Happy New Year,” according to video and snaps.
The toppled Venezuelan tyrant was handcuffed and sported black sweats and a black hat as he clutched a water bottle while being escorted through the Chelsea facility before being hastened to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The ousted dictator can be heard saying “Good Night, Happy New Year,” to surrounding agents, according to a footage released by the White House in a post on X they labeled “Perp walked.”
The same outlet later reported hundreds of revelers chanted and celebrated outside a Brooklyn lockup as Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were hauled inside to face federal narco-terrorism charges.
The ousted couple were greeted at the Brooklyn Detention Center with the boisterous crowd triumphantly applauding, jeering, and chanting “down with the dictator,” “shame on you,” and “dirty scumbag!”
Venezuelan national Ronny Chirinos was reportedly one of more than 200 opponents who eagerly waited outside the prison for more than an hour in the bitter cold for the ousted dictator to arrive in cuffs.
“It’s such a joy to see the dictator fall, but the regime hasn’t fallen yet,” the 21-year-old, who relocated from Maracay to the Big Apple three years ago due to Maduro’s regime, told The Post.
“I want everything to fall. That there is no one left.”
Federal law enforcement personnel patrol outside the Metropolitan Detention Center as they await the arrival of captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
As Breitbart News reported, Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were captured and flown out of the country on Saturday night after a series of explosions hit Caracas.
“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement,” President Trump said in a Truth Social statement confirming the successful action.
U.S. courts accused Maduro in 2020 of being a leading figure, if not the leader of, the Cartel of the Suns, an international cocaine trafficking operation led by top members of the despotic Venezuelan regime that for years sought to “flood” the United States with cocaine to harm its people.
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