The new Maduro torture charges land with a thud. US prosecutors now say Venezuela’s ousted president and his wife used brutality to keep their grip on power. A 30-page superseding indictment, filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court, adds a conspiracy-to-commit-torture count against Nicol\u00e1s Maduro and Cilia Flores, according to Reuters reporting.
That is a big shift. Until now, the case was about drugs and guns. Now, instead, it is about people.
What the Maduro torture indictment alleges
Prosecutors say the couple’s government tortured political opponents and US citizens. In fact, the indictment describes Maduro as having “presided over this system of repression and torture,” according to The Hill.
The details are grim. Prosecutors allege Maduro ordered the 2013 arrest of a military officer he suspected of plotting a coup. Military counterintelligence then allegedly shocked the officer with a live electric wire about 20 times. They also allegedly hung the officer by the hands and feet.
The indictment also describes an American citizen detained while entering Venezuela. Because that person was accused of plotting to assassinate Maduro, counterintelligence officers allegedly beat and shocked the detainee. Reuters places the detention in 2022, though CBS News gives a different year, so that detail remains unsettled.
According to CBS, the alleged methods also include asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation and punishment cells. They also include threats to harm victims’ families, including children. Still, these are allegations, not proven facts.
Meanwhile, FBI Director Kash Patel weighed in on social media. He said the couple “subjected over a dozen American citizens to torture while held in custody of the Venezuelan government.”
Why this case matters for American families
Here’s the thing: this is the first time Maduro has faced criminal charges over torture allegations, per Reuters. The drug case was always about what moved through Venezuela. This count, however, is about what happened to people inside it.
It also puts the case on firmer emotional ground for American families whose relatives were jailed in Venezuelan prisons. CNN reported ahead of the filing that the charges relate to the wrongful detention of more than a dozen US citizens. And the courts have already heard from some of them. CBC, citing the AP, reports a $300 million US default judgment in a civil suit by former detainees in May.
To see how the country got here, read our look at Venezuela after Maduro and what comes next. The Maduro torture charges add a darker chapter to that story.
The charges against Maduro and Flores sit on top of a drug case
The new count sits on top of the drug trafficking charges the couple already faced. Those include narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons counts. Both pleaded not guilty to the drug charges. They are held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, and trial is set for June 1, 2027.
Reuters reports US forces captured Flores, 69, and Maduro, 63, at their Caracas home on Jan. 3 and flew them to New York. How the new indictment divides the charges between the two is not fully clear. Reports differ on whether Flores faces an added narcoterrorism count or just a restated one.
Meanwhile, a separate fight played out the same day. Flores’ lawyers want her released for a cardiac procedure. She would then recover at a New York-area home with round-the-clock private security. They say Venezuela’s government, which the US authorized to pay the couple’s legal fees, would cover the cost.
Per US News, prosecutors say she has received adequate medical care. They argue she would pose an “extreme” risk of flight and danger to the public, including possible witness intimidation.
Her lawyer, Mark Donnelly, told the court he had not had time to review the new charges with her. The court did not ask Flores to enter a plea. Maduro’s lawyers had not responded to Reuters’ request for comment.
The case also fits a broader pattern of US pressure on Caracas. Consider the earlier seizure of a sanctioned oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast.
What to watch as the Maduro torture allegations move forward
Three things to track. First, Judge Alvin Hellerstein’s ruling on Flores’ release request. Second, an arraignment on the superseding indictment, which does not yet have a date. Third, his decision on the couple’s sovereign-immunity motions to dismiss, which prosecutors urged him to deny in an Oct. 2 filing.
So the question hanging over a case already years in the making is simple. If prosecutors can prove the Maduro torture charges, does the trial become about what Venezuela did to its own people, and to Americans?
