Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro holds hands with his wife Cilia Flores as they arrive for a meeting in the Summit of South American-Arab Countries, in Riyadh Thomson Reuters CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday condemned what he called imperialist attacks and ambushes after two nephews of his wife were arrested in Haiti and taken to the United States to face drug trafficking charges.

"The fatherland will follow its course," tweeted the 52-year-old Venezuelan president, whose socialist government is facing increasing accusations from the United States of collusion in smuggling cocaine from Colombia.

"Neither attacks nor imperialist ambushes can harm the people of the liberators," added Maduro, who was to address the United Nations human rights body in Geneva later on Thursday.

Franqui Francisco Flores-de Freitas, 30, and Efrain Antonio Campo-Flores, 29, were flown to New York on Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. Both are nephews of Maduro's wife and first lady, Cilia Flores.

The case is an embarrassment for Maduro as the ruling Socialist Party heads towards parliamentary elections. It faces the possibility of losing the National Assembly for the first time in its 16-year rule due to the OPEC nation's economic crisis.

Maduro and other senior officials have long said accusations of drug trafficking were part of an international campaign to discredit socialism in the South American nation.

Venezuela's first lady Cilia Flores walks during a welcome ceremony in Puerto Ayacucho, July 22, 2013. Reuters Anti-narcotics police arrested the two Venezuelans at a Port-au-Prince hotel at the request of U.S. authorities, according to a senior Haitian official.

They were flown out of the country later that day, accompanied by agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the official said.

They were arrested after contacting an undercover U.S. agent about selling 800 kg (1,763 lb) of cocaine through Honduras, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

Flores, 62, whom the president refers to as the "First Combatant," is highly influential in her husband's government. She was on the legal team of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez, working to secure his 1994 release from prison after a failed coup attempt.

In 2006, she became the first woman elected to lead the legislature, taking over that role from Maduro, and is registered as a candidate in the Dec. 6 legislative elections.

The U.S. State Department says more than half of the cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia moves through Venezuela toward Europe and the United States.

The U.S. Treasury has nine Venezuelan officials on a "kingpin" list, which bars those suspected of involvement in large-scale drug trafficking from the U.S. financial system.

The Venezuelan prosecutor's office said it had accused at least 100 military and police officials of drug trafficking in the last five years.