Nicolás Maduro charged with conspiring to torture opponents in US case

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were charged with conspiring to torture political opponents to “retain their power” as part of the ongoing criminal case against them in the United States.

Maduro and his wife were captured in Caracas in early January and have been held at a detention center in Brooklyn, New York, since then. 

The new charges were filed by U.S. prosecutors in New York in a superseding indictment made public on Thursday. They were added to the existing criminal case against the couple, which includes charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and firearms offenses.

Flores was initially excluded from the narco-terrorism charge but was added to it on Thursday. On the same day, a judge denied a request to transfer her to house arrest on health grounds.

Prosecutors told reporters that the new charge covers the alleged torture of nine people, including three U.S. citizens.

According to the superseding indictment, Maduro and Flores presided “over a system of repression that relied on violence against political opposition, arbitrary detention, and the torture of detainees, including United States citizens.”

The alleged torture of political opponents and detainees included “electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture.” The latter involved threats to kill the victims’ families.

“Maduro, Flores and other high-ranking members of their inner circle used a violent system of torture and repression to maintain their power,” Jamie McDonald, the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, told reporters outside the courthouse on Thursday.

Maduro and Flores’ response “President Maduro denies the charges in the new indictment and looks forward to his day in court,” the former leader’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, said.

“We look forward to fully responding to the allegations in court at the appropriate time,” Flores’ lawyers, Mark Donnelly and Andres Sanchez, said in a statement.

If convicted on all charges, Maduro and Flores would each face a minimum of 50 years in prison. 

The couple had formally denied the earlier accusations and have now rejected the new charges in statements from their lawyers.

Torture accusations Local and international human rights groups, including the United Nations, have accused Maduro and his government of torture for years. However, this is the first time he has faced criminal charges over those allegations.

In recent years, Venezuelan citizens living in Argentina as political refugees filed criminal complaints against Maduro in Buenos Aires courts, accusing him of crimes against humanity and describing episodes of torture.

In 2024, a Buenos Aires federal criminal court ordered Interpol to arrest Maduro and other members of his administration and extradite them to Argentina to face an investigation into torture, kidnapping, and murder as part of a “systematic plan” against the Venezuelan people that has allegedly been in place since at least 2014.

The principle of “universal justice” in Argentina allows judges to investigate crimes committed in other countries. This was the first international arrest warrant issued for Maduro and members of his government. 

However, the case ultimately did not move forward.