Venezuela’s former first lady is asking to be released from jail as she and her husband prepare to face trial in the United States on drug trafficking charges.
Attorneys for Cilia Flores, the wife of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, said in court papers filed Wednesday that she “deserves the opportunity to await her trial while on home confinement,” citing a heart condition they say has worsened during her time in custody.
Her lawyers, Mark Donnelly and Andres Sanchez, urged a judge to permit Flores to leave the Brooklyn federal jail and live in a residence within the Manhattan federal court district, where she and Maduro are set to go on trial next June.
Under the proposed arrangement, Flores would remain under round-the-clock armed surveillance and could meet only with visitors approved by both the court and federal prosecutors, her attorneys said.
The residence would also be subject to video monitoring, and her phone calls would be recorded, according to the filing.
Federal prosecutors have not yet submitted a response to the request.
A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Manhattan declined to comment.
US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has not yet issued a ruling on Flores’ bid for release.
Flores, 69, and Maduro, 63, have been detained at a Brooklyn jail since early January, when US forces seized them from their Caracas home during a middle-of-the-night raid and transported them to New York City.
Both have pleaded not guilty to charges accusing them of participating in a conspiracy to traffic cocaine into the United States.
In a separate filing, the couple recently sought to have the indictment thrown out, arguing they are immune from prosecution because of their status as the leader and first lady of a foreign country.
Flores’ attorneys said she has long suffered from mitral valve prolapse and has not received the monthly injection needed to manage the condition since her arrest and detention at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Instead, Donnelly and Sanchez said, she has been prescribed baby aspirin, a statin, diltiazem and nitroglycerin as needed for chest pains.
She has continually suffered from reflux and gastritis, has lost two molars and shed more than 25 pounds.
Flores has been advised by doctors that she should undergo cardiac catheterization, which could lead to further heart procedures, her lawyers said.
If that happens, they said, she “will need adequate time to recover from any procedures in a setting conducive to restoring her health.”
Staff at the jail “have been extremely respectful toward her and her husband,” and Flores “does not dispute that she has received excellent care from medical professionals” at the jail and hospital, Donnelly and Sanchez wrote.
But, they argued, “a detention center lacks the conditions needed for such a recovery.”
