Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unsealed a superseding indictment Thursday charging ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with conspiracy to commit torture against political opponents and detained U.S. citizens.
The updated indictment, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Maduro and Flores organized and maintained an extensive apparatus of brutality to silence dissent and cement their hold on power, ABC News and Fox News reported. Maduro was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture, while Flores was charged with conspiracy to commit torture along with a new narcoterrorism count, according to court documents.
Severe abuse detailed in indictment
Prosecutors alleged that the couple oversaw abusive practices inside Venezuelan detention facilities, targeting individuals viewed as threats to their authority as well as detained Americans. According to the indictment, the mistreatment included electric shocks, beatings, asphyxiation, starvation, forced isolation, rape, and threats against relatives, including children, BBC News reported.
FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement that the former regime subjected more than a dozen American citizens to torture while in custody, ABC News reported. The charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, or up to life imprisonment if any act of torture resulted in death, according to Fox News.
The indictment outlined several specific cases involving U.S. citizens. One American detainee was allegedly subjected to repeated beatings, waterboarding, electric shocks to his limbs and genitals, and injections of a substance that caused seizures before being freed after months in custody, according to the court filing. Another American citizen visiting relatives in Venezuela was beaten, shocked with electricity, and told he was being kept alive solely to serve as leverage in a prisoner exchange with Washington, ABC News reported.
“When Maduro became President of Venezuela in or about 2013, he authorized the use of torture against specific individuals and oversaw a system designed to use torture, military detention, and violence as a means of repression against the political opposition,” the indictment alleged.
Bail denied for former first lady
Maduro did not appear in court Thursday. His defense attorney, Barry J. Pollack, said Maduro “denies the charges in the new indictment and looks forward to his day in court,” according to statements provided to news outlets.
Flores appeared before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein for a bail hearing, during which her attorneys requested home confinement with electronic monitoring, citing a heart condition and the need for medical care, Fox News reported. Federal prosecutors opposed the motion, arguing that she posed a major danger to the public and a flight risk.
Hellerstein rejected the defense request and ordered Flores to remain behind bars, ABC News reported.
“Jail is not a nice place to be, but these are serious allegations,” Hellerstein said from the bench. “I don’t think the conditions are there to release her.”
What comes next
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have been held at a federal detention center in Brooklyn since January, when U.S. military forces captured them during an operation in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, according to the news reports. Both defendants previously pleaded not guilty to earlier federal charges accusing them of narcotics trafficking and weapons offenses.
Attorneys for the pair have sought to dismiss the prosecution by arguing that both are shielded by diplomatic immunity as leaders of a sovereign government. A trial on the full set of charges is scheduled to begin in June 2027, though dates for formal arraignments on the newly unsealed torture charges have not yet been announced.
