Venezuela’s Maduro, wife face charges over alleged torture of Americans
by Jeff Mordock · The Washington TimesFederal prosecutors filed new charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Thursday, alleging they tortured Americans and others held in their government’s custody.
Mr. Maduro and his wife each face an additional charge of conspiracy to commit torture, according to an indictment filed in New York.
“To undermine Venezuelan democracy and entrench themselves in power, these same leaders presided over a system of repression that relied on violence against political opposition, detention and the torture of detainees, including United States citizens,” prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
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“That torture included electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture, such as threats to harm and kill victims’ families, including children,” the indictment said.
Prosecutors allege that when Mr. Maduro became president in 2013, he “authorized the use of torture against specific individuals and oversaw a system designed to use torture, arbitrary detention and violence as a means of repression against the political opposition.”
The new charges stem from what the U.S. government has called the wrongful detention of more than a dozen Americans in Venezuelan prisons when Maduro led the country’s oppressive regime.
Prosecutors say that in one instance, Mr. Maduro in 2013 ordered the arrest of a Venezuelan military officer he suspected of planning a coup. They say that members of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence agency interrogated the officer and shocked him with live electric wire around 20 times and hung him by his hands and feet for several minutes at a time.
In 2022, an American citizen detained while entering Venezuela was accused of conspiring to assassinate Maduro and was tortured by military counterintelligence officers through beatings and shocks to the person’s arms, legs and genitals, according to the indictment.
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“The officers punched him in the face and abdomen, covered his face, and poured a noxious liquid over his face that caused him to vomit, which the officer then forced him to eat,” the indictment said.
The most recent torture allegation occurred in January 2025 following the presidential election, when a U.S. citizen was arrested at his Venezuelan home while officials were looking for another person. Prosecutors say the American was placed in the basement at the detention facility with a hood over his head, and hands cuffed behind his back. Over a span of two days, he was beaten hourly in the head, stomach and face, resulting in a permanent eye injury.
A lawyer for Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Maduro and Ms. Flores were captured by the U.S. military on Jan. 3 in their Caracas home and brought to New York to face narcoterrorism charges. Both have pleaded not guilty.
Their lawyers have challenged the legality of the arrests, arguing Maduro and his wife have diplomatic immunity.
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