A superseding indictment in Manhattan charges Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores with conspiracy to commit torture. A judge denied Flores's request for release on health grounds.
U.S. prosecutors on Thursday added a conspiracy-to-commit-torture count against ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, Reuters reported from New York. The charge is in a superseding indictment filed in Manhattan federal court, on top of drug-trafficking counts they already faced.
The Drug Enforcement Administration said the indictment was unsealed the same day and was announced by Attorney General Todd Blanche, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald, DEA Administrator Terrance C. Cole, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and FBI Director Kash Patel. The DEA release lists the torture conspiracy alongside narcoterrorism, cocaine-importation and weapons counts.
Reuters said prosecutors allege Maduro in 2013 ordered the arrest of a Venezuelan military officer he suspected of planning a coup, and that counterintelligence officers then used electric shocks and hung the officer by the hands and feet. Prosecutors also described a 2022 case in which an American citizen was beaten and shocked. Those details are allegations in the indictment, not findings.
Separately, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Flores's request to be released before trial for health reasons, Reuters reported. Maduro and Flores have been in U.S. custody since a January military operation. The DEA said Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, face a maximum of 20 years on the torture-conspiracy count.
The new count is a charging development in an existing case. It is not a conviction.
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- Jamie McDonald said the indictment alleges a torture conspiracy including against U.S. citizens.
- Kash Patel said the charges follow the January transfer of Maduro and Flores to U.S. custody.