Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were charged in US federal court on Thursday with conspiring to commit torture, according to a newly unsealed indictment.
Maduro and Flores have been held in the United States since early January, when US authorities seized and arrested them during a surprise overnight raid at their residence in Caracas.
The indictment alleges that Maduro and Flores “sat atop” a “violent power structure” that authorized torture against targeted individuals, including US citizens believed to threaten Maduro’s grip on power.
According to the indictment reviewed by Our News Outlet, the alleged abuse included electric shocks, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells and psychological torture. Victims were also threatened with harm or death to their family members, including children.
Maduro and Flores were charged earlier this year with conspiring to smuggle drugs into the United States.
Then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro waves a national flag in Caracas. The longtime strongman and his wife have been charged with conspiring to commit torture.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are shown in handcuffs following their arrest and transfer to the United States. They arrived on January 6 and were taken to federal court in Manhattan.
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado greets supporters at an opposition protest. Maduro was declared the winner of the 2024 election, a result questioned internationally and by the opposition.
The document alleges that Maduro used his position as president to oversee a repressive system that depended on violence against political opponents, including arbitrary detention and the torture of detainees, among them US citizens.
Maduro has challenged the legality of his arrest and transfer to the United States, calling the operation a “kidnapping.”
President Donald Trump and members of his administration have defended the raid as a “surgical law enforcement operation.”
US Justice Department documents say Maduro faces charges involving narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking and illegal weapons offenses.
Maduro and Flores have both pleaded not guilty to every charge.
At an earlier federal court appearance this year, Maduro remained defiant.
“I’m still the president of my country,” he said during his January arraignment, where he was seen angrily writing on a legal pad throughout the proceeding.
Later, as he was escorted from the courthouse to the Brooklyn detention center where he is being held, Maduro declared: “I’m a prisoner of war.”
In the months that followed, Maduro appeared to lose weight in custody and was frequently photographed looking relaxed and even cheerful while wearing shackles and tracksuits.
Images dated June 25 showed him grinning in a gray tracksuit and white sneakers at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.
This is a breaking news story. Check back soon for updates.
The president has publicly said the military operation to remove Maduro was partly intended to secure some of oil-rich Venezuela’s stock. Maduro is pictured on January 5.
Captured Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has been pictured flashing a smile and a peace sign in new photographs released from federal prison from June
People raise their hands during a mass opposition rally against then-President Nicolas Maduro in this 2019 photo. Thousands of supporters massed outside the National Assembly in support of the former opposition candidate.
