Prosecutors in the United States have charged Venezuela's deposed president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, with conspiracy to commit torture, according to a superseding indictment unsealed on Thursday in a federal court in Manhattan. The new charges add to existing counts of drug trafficking and weapons offences, which the couple deny.
The indictment alleges that Maduro, Flores and other Venezuelan leaders "presided over a system of repression" built on violence against political opponents, arbitrary detention and the torture of detainees, including US citizens. It says the couple "sat atop that violent power structure". Flores is accused of helping develop the system and of ordering people to be tortured to protect her family members' illegal activities. She also faces a new narco-terrorism conspiracy charge.
The filing describes methods including electric shocks, asphyxiation, beatings, deprivation of food and water, forced injections and, according to some accounts, rape and simulated drowning. One American, accused in 2022 of plotting to kill Maduro, was allegedly given injections that caused seizures. In another case, prosecutors say, the relatives of a Venezuelan official were abused until he blocked opposition figures from running for office. Interrogators also allegedly threatened a detainee that his daughter would be kidnapped and raped.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the charges reflect the administration's dedication to delivering justice for victims of torture, narco-terrorism and organised crime. FBI Director Kash Patel spoke of accountability and the rule of law.
The couple were seized by US special forces in a pre-dawn raid on Caracas in January and taken to New York, where they are held in a Brooklyn jail. The operation prompted widespread international criticism. Maduro has called himself a "kidnapped president" and a "prisoner of war", and both have argued they have immunity as head of state and first lady. Trial is scheduled for June next year.
On the same day, Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Flores's request to be moved to house arrest with private security. Her lawyers cited heart problems and high blood pressure, and said she had lost more than 25 pounds and two teeth in detention. The judge said her condition was controllable and that the cardiac procedure she has refused is routine. Prosecutors argued she was a flight risk and had received proper medical care.
Why this matters: Venezuelan rights groups and former prisoners have long described systematic torture in the country's prisons, and the allegations echo those accounts. The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, said in March that structural human rights concerns persist and that his office had received reports of continued torture after Maduro's capture. Interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, previously Maduro's vice president, has released hundreds of political prisoners under an amnesty law, but the rights group Foro Penal says more than 300 remain jailed. Meanwhile, US energy companies have signed deals to expand oil projects in Venezuela, which holds the world's largest proven reserves, keeping the political and economic stakes of the case high.