Maduro and Wife Charged With Conspiracy to Commit Torture in New York Indictment
A superseding indictment unsealed Oct. 8 adds the torture count to the narcoterrorism case against Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores. A judge denied bail for Flores the same day.
Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were charged Thursday, Oct. 8, with conspiring to commit torture in a superseding indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, the Justice Department said.
The new count, Count Two, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. It joins the four counts already pending against the couple: narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to import cocaine, and two machine-gun and destructive-device offenses. Maduro is 63 and Flores is 69. They were arrested in January.
The indictment alleges that Maduro, Flores and other Venezuelan leaders ran a system of repression that used military units, police agencies and armed groups to detain and torture political opponents, including U.S. citizens. The Justice Department said the torture described in the indictment included electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and threats to harm and kill victims' families.
As one example, the department said a U.S. citizen was detained in Venezuela and subjected to deprivation of food and water, simulated drowning, repeated beatings, electric shock to the testicles and forced injections. The Justice Department said a Venezuelan official identified in the indictment only as CC-3 ordered and took part in the torture of civilians and military members, including U.S. citizens.
"Today's indictment further alleges that the Maduros and other Venezuelan leaders conspired to repress dissent through grave violations of human rights by ordering and allowing violence, threats, and physical torture under color of law," said Jamie McDonald, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.
FBI Director Kash Patel said that, as alleged, the Maduro regime "subjected American citizens to torture while held in custody of the Venezuelan government."
The Justice Department noted that an indictment is an allegation and that the defendants are presumed innocent. At a hearing the same day, Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied bail for Flores.
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