AI-generated pictures of Venezuelan leader's first court hearing mislead online
- Published on January 14, 2026 at 07:31
- 3 min read
- By Caroline LIN, AFP Hong Kong
Deposed Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro pleaded not guilty on drug trafficking charges at a US federal court two days after his capture in an overnight raid by US forces, but a collage of AI images that circulated online do not show his first court hearing. No official photos have been released and taking pictures during the proceedings is prohibited.
"These are photos of Maduro's first court appearance released by foreign media," reads part of a simplified Chinese post shared on Facebook on January 7, 2026.
It includes a collage of four images, appearing to show the Venezuelan president during and after an arraignment.
Wearing a khaki jacket and red sneakers, the images appear to show Maduro seated on a wooden bench, exiting a room, walking out of a building, and escorted by personnel in US Drug Enforcement Agency uniforms towards a black vehicle.
The images surfaced after Maduro pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges at a defiant appearance in a New York court on January 5 (archived link).
The 63-year-old and his wife Cilia Flores were snatched at home by US forces during a stunning overnight operation in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
Flores likewise claimed she was innocent. The couple would remain in federal custody, with their next hearing scheduled for March 17.
The fabricated images were also shared in similar posts on X and Weibo, and have spread in other languages including English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
While some social media users questioned the images' authenticity, others seemed to believe they were genuine photos of Maduro's first court appearance in Manhattan.
"The best thing my eyes have ever seen," a comment reads. Another wrote, "Finally justice catches up with him."
However, the circulating images are generated with artificial intelligence and do not show real scenes of Maduro's first appearance.
A keyword search using the username watermark "kroelgraphics" on the images led to a TikTok account that uploaded them on January 6, alongside a notice saying they are "artistic visual representation, not real photographs" in Spanish (archived link).
AFP reached out to the account owner, who confirmed he created the images using Nano Banana Pro combined with Photoshop.
"I included a text saying they are only visual images so as not to misinform," the graphic designer, who asked not to be named, told AFP on January 14 via WhatsApp.
Subsequent analysis with Google's SynthID detector, a tool designed to identify AI-generated content, showed results indicating a high probability that the images were created using the platform's AI tools (archived link).
The visuals also contain several errors that are artefacts of AI. The fingers are strangely shaped and the text on the police car does not match that on genuine New York police vehicles (archived here and here).
According to New York court rules, no photography in a courthouse at anytime or on any occasion is allowed unless applications for photographing not for public dissemination are made (archived link).
A courtroom sketch of the hearing distributed by AFP shows Maduro and his wife dressed in orange jail shirts under blue V-neck tops wearing headphones -- different from the attire of Maduro seen in the fabricated images.
AFP has debunked other fabricated images that purport to show Maduro after his capture.
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