The Daily Journal.- U.S. federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, who was presiding over the case against ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, died Wednesday at the age of 92, a judiciary spokesperson confirmed to local media.
According to judicial sources, Hellerstein died of natural causes less than two months before his 93rd birthday. Ed Friedland, the U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York, confirmed his death to the media. Hellerstein had served on the court for nearly three decades.
Former President Bill Clinton appointed Hellerstein as a federal district judge in 1998. In 2011, he assumed senior judge status, allowing him to reduce his workload while continuing to handle selected cases. Throughout his judicial career, he oversaw several high-profile cases, including major civil litigation related to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In the Venezuela-related case, Hellerstein had overseen the proceedings since prosecutors first indicted Maduro in 2020, giving him extensive familiarity with the case’s structure and evidence. The indictment charges Maduro with narcoterrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine, among other offenses. Earlier this year, prosecutors included Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores, as a defendant for the first time in a superseding indictment.
In a May 2025 ruling, Hellerstein limited the Alien Enemies Act’s application, arguing that the Tren de Aragua gang’s criminal activities constituted a criminal matter rather than an “invasion” in the legal sense.
The court indicated that it will reassign Maduro’s case to another judge through the standard random assignment procedure, along with Hellerstein’s remaining pending cases.
For now, it remains unclear whether the change will affect the trial schedule. Legal experts had previously suggested that, given the complexity of the proceedings, Maduro’s trial might not begin until 2027.
With information from EFE.
