Nicolás Maduro’s Only Son, Nicknamed ‘the Prince,’ Gets Emotional Saying the ‘Country Is in Good Hands, Dad’

Nicolás Ernesto Maduro Guerra, the son of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, delivered public remarks in Venezuela days after Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured and taken to the United States.

Maduro Guerra, 35 — whose mother is Maduro’s first wife, Adriana Guerra Angulo — said on Monday, Jan. 5, that the U.S. should return his father, 63, and Flores to Venezuela after they were taken from their home on Saturday, Jan. 3. Speaking in the capital, he warned that other countries could face similar actions.

“If we normalize the kidnapping of a head of state, no country is safe. Today, it’s Venezuela. Tomorrow, it could be any nation that refuses to submit,” he said, according to an English translation from CBC. “This is not a regional problem. It is a direct threat to global political stability.”

He also voiced support for Delcy Rodríguez, who is serving as interim president and has been Venezuela’s vice president since 2018.

“My unconditional support for the very hard task you’ve been given,” he said. “Count on me, count on my family, count on our firmness in taking the right steps at the forefront of this responsibility that is now yours.”

Growing emotional, Maduro Guerra addressed his father directly, crediting him with strengthening the family and promising they would continue their work until his return.

“And to you, dad, I say, you made all of us in the family strong people. Here we are, fulfilling our duties until you return,” he said.

He added, “The homeland is in good hands, dad, and soon we will embrace each other here in Venezuela,” before closing: “Long live Venezuela, long live the homeland, and here we are, standing firm for whatever we must do for our country.”

While Maduro and Flores were brought to the U.S. and appeared in court on narco-terrorism charges on Monday, Maduro Guerra is also facing drug trafficking charges from the Trump administration, which he denies.

Maduro Guerra — known as “Nicolasito,” a.k.a. “The Prince,” according to an indictment — is accused of supporting drug operations beginning in 2014. The indictment alleges that his plane “would be loaded, sometimes with the assistance of armed sergeants, with large packages wrapped in tape that the captain understood were drugs.”

The filing claims the plane “could go wherever it wanted, including the United States,” after it was loaded with the packages. The indictment also accuses him of helping ship “hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Venezuela to Miami” in 2017.

Maduro is facing four charges, to all of which he has pleaded not guilty: narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine-importation conspiracy, and possession of and conspiracy to possess machine guns. Flores also pleaded not guilty in the Monday court hearing.

Maduro and Flores were captured Saturday after President Donald Trump launched military strikes in Venezuela. Trump, 79, confirmed the order of “large-scale strikes” and the capture of Maduro in a statement on Truth Social Saturday morning.

Later that day, in remarks delivered from his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Fla., Trump said the United States would now “run” Venezuela.

“No nation in the world could achieve what America achieved, successfully capturing Maduro in the dead of night,” he said, adding, “We’re going to get the oil flowing the way it should be…we’re gonna run it properly. We’re gonna make sure the people of Venezuela are taken care of.”