US Federal Judge Alvin K. Hellersteinwho presided over the case against Nicolás Maduro, died this Wednesday at the age of 92, a spokesperson for the judicial system told local media.
Born in New York on December 28, 1933, Hellerstein studied at Columbia University, served in the United States Army Bar Corps from 1957 to 1960, and worked for nearly four decades at the firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, specializing in commercial disputes.
He was nominated by then-President Bill Clinton in 1998 as Judge of the Southern District of New York.
“A well-deserved reputation”
Among its most notable cases are civil trials linked to the attacks of September 11, 2001, those related to the CIA’s treatment of detainees accused of “terrorism” or those regarding abuses inflicted on prisoners in US prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since 2011, the magistrate has been in charge of the drug trafficking trial against Hugo “el Pollo” Carvajal, former head of Venezuelan military intelligence, in which Maduro has appeared since 2020.
Hellerstein sentenced another defendant in this case, retired Venezuelan Major General Cliver Alcalá, to 21 years and eight months in prison in 2024.
He also had confrontations with the president donald trump, who rejected a request to transfer from New York to federal court his trial for falsifying records to mask payments made to former porn actress Stormy Daniels.
And last year he stopped the Trump administration from deporting suspected Venezuelan gang members without a court hearing.
“Hellerstein has a well-deserved reputation for seeking justice in every case and for being independent and impartial,” said law professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond.
In a notable 2015 ruling, Hellerstein ordered the US government to release large numbers of photographs showing abuse of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He also handled the trial in which the French bank BNP Paribas was declared complicit in atrocities in Sudan in October.
The jury sentenced the bank to pay $20.75 million to the victims.
The judge who handled the Maduro case from its beginnings
Hellerstein’s death leaves matters pending resolution related to the process against Maduroamong them the defense argument about the immunity that would correspond to him due to his status as a foreign head of state. The next hearing was scheduled for November 17.
According to Ed Friedland, spokesperson for the judicial system, both the file against Maduro and the other processes that the magistrate was handling will be randomly assigned to another federal judge. The appointment will allow for continuity in judicial proceedings after Hellerstein’s death.
The judge had been leading the case since March 2020, when the United States presented the original accusation against Maduro. After the capture of the Venezuelan president and his transfer to US territory in January 2026, he presided over the first appearance of Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, before a federal court in Manhattan. Both pleaded not guilty.
Subsequently, an expanded indictment included Flores and maintained charges of narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, and weapons-related crimes against Maduro. The continuity of the process will now be in the hands of the judge who is appointed to replace Hellerstein.
