NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have charged Venezuela’s former president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with conspiracy to commit torture, in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday that accuses them of presiding over a system of repression that targeted opponents and U.S. citizens, BBC News and the Associated Press reported.
The indictment alleges torture including “electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture,” the BBC said. According to the AP, it claims Maduro signed off on torture methods, received updates on specific victims, watched a video of a forced confession and personally threatened to kill a prisoner’s child. Three of the victims described are U.S. citizens. Flores, prosecutors allege, helped build the system and ordered that some people be tortured to protect family members’ illegal activities.
The indictment “alleges conduct that is truly unthinkable,” U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said outside the courthouse. “This is the epitome of corruption,” he said, according to NPR. Maduro’s attorney, Barry Pollack, said his client denies the charges and looks forward to his day in court. Prosecutors also added Flores to an existing narco-terrorism charge, and U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Thursday denied her request to be released to house arrest.
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have been held in a Brooklyn detention center since U.S. forces seized them in a raid on Caracas in January. They have pleaded not guilty to the earlier drug-trafficking and weapons charges, and their trial is set to begin in June 2027, the BBC said. Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s former vice president, now leads Venezuela as interim president; the prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal says more than 300 political prisoners remain behind bars.
Sources: BBC News, Associated Press (via NPR), The Guardian
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