Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty Monday in a federal courthouse in Manhattan to federal conspiracy, drugs and weapons charges.

After a summary of the charging documents against him was read, Maduro said in Spanish when asked by Judge Alvin Hellerstein how he would plead, "I am not guilty," adding, "I am a decent man. I am still the president of my country."

When Flores was asked by the judge for her plea, she said in Spanish, "Not guilty, completely innocent."

Maduro and Flores were captured by U.S. military and law enforcement late Friday at the secured compound on a military base in Caracas and taken to New York to face the charges.