‘Free our president’

CARACAS, Venezuela (AFP) — Around 2,000 supporters of ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro demonstrated Sunday in Caracas to demand that he and his wife, who were nabbed by United States forces and taken to a New York jail, be released.

A group of pro-Maduro paramilitaries and bikers accompanied the demonstrators, who waved red, blue and yellow Venezuelan flags.

“Free our president,” read a placard held by a man with a red flannel shirt which bore the image of Maduro’s predecessor and mentor, late socialist firebrand Hugo Chavez.

“Venezuela is no-one’s colony,” another placard read.

On Monday, Maduro is due in court in New York to face charges of “narcoterrorism” tied to alleged cocaine trafficking into the US.