(RNS) — In his first appearance in a New York courtroom on Monday (Jan. 5), ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro reportedly uttered the words “In the name of God, you will see that I will be free” and “I am a man of God.”
As Maduro — who was arrested by the U.S. on federal drug trafficking charges on Saturday and has pleaded not guilty — hails from a Catholic-majority nation and was born Catholic, one might assume his faith fits neatly into that box. But a number of prominent Venezuelan politicians — including Maduro; his wife, Cilia Flores, who is former president of the country’s National Assembly; and acting President Delcy Rodriguez — are devotees of the late Indian guru Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Known as a “man of miracles” with tens of millions of followers worldwide, he was believed by devotees to have abilities ranging from healing the sick to materializing objects seemingly out of nowhere.
Visitors to Maduro’s private office in Miraflores Palace in Caracas would have seen a large framed portrait of Sai Baba alongside those of former leaders Hugo Chávez and Simón Bolívar. A 2005 photograph shows Maduro and Flores — who was the first of the duo to follow Sai Baba — kneeling on the floor in a visit with the guru at his Prasanthi Nilayam Ashram in the the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, India. And several photos and videos show Rodriguez at the ashram in 2023 and 2024, bowing in respect to the spiritual leader.
When Sai Baba died in 2011 at age 84, Maduro had the Venezuelan government issue an official condolence resolution and declare a national day of mourning. And most recently, on Sai …