Nicolás Maduro, wife indicted on new charges, including torture of U.S. citizens and illegal detention

Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on Thursday were hit with additional charges of conspiracy to torture their political opponents, including Americans, to hold onto power.

The couple also used violent methods, including "electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture," to suppress drug rivals and further their alleged narcotics trafficking operation, according to a new indictment.

Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, denied the allegations.

“President Maduro denies the charges in the new indictment and looks forward to his day in court,” he said in a statement.

Flores’ defense lawyer, Mark Donnelly, said he had only seen the new charges at 8:30 a.m. Thursday morning and had not had a chance go over them.

Flores and Maduro were arrested Jan. 3 in a U.S. military incursion and brought to Manhattan federal court to face charges of narcoterrorism, drug trafficking and weapons charges.

They have been held in the Metropolitan Detention Center ever since.

On Thursday, the prosecutors charged that the couple "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 new charges touch on the 2017 conviction and imprisonment of the so-called Citgo 6, a group of 6 oil company executives, 5 of whom were Americans.

In June of that year, tensions rose between the United States and Venezuela over financial sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. Maduro said that President Donald Trump was trying to bankrupt his country by excluding Venezuela from U.S. financial markets. He also said that the president plotted to kill him, prosecutors said.

"They've given the order to assassinate the president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and the order comes from the Oval Office [of the White House]," Maduro was quoted as saying, according to court papers.

Around Thanksgiving of that year, the Citgo executives arrived in Caracas for what they believed was a business trip, according to previous news reports.

Instead, they were arrested by masked men at gunpoint and charged with plotting to bankrupt the Venezuela national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A., "through dirty dealings, very dirty dealings. to give it away to a group of people connected to the United States government," Maduro said on national TV, according to court papers.

The men were convicted and served six years in Boleíta Norte, a notorious Caracas prison, where they said they were tortured and starved, according to court records.

In August 2018, following the explosion of two drones near where Maduro was giving a speech, the former president again accused the U.S. of trying to assassinate him, prosecutors said.

In 2022, the Venezuelan military intelligence arrested and detained another American, identified as Victim-7 in court papers, then tortured him for "two or three days," according to the complaint, pouring noxious liquid on him, causing him to vomit, which they then forced him to eat.

They accused him of being part of the alleged assassination attempt and transferred him to the same Boleíta Norte prison as the other Americans, where they continued to torture him, prosecutors said.

"That torture included electric shock to Victim-7's arms, legs, and genitals; asphyxiation; beatings; deprivation of food and water; and forced injections of a substance that caused Victim-7 to experience seizures," according to the indictment.

The man saw other Americans who were also in the prison being tortured as well, prosecutors said.

He and the other five Americans were eventually released in 2023 in a deal brokered by the U.S. government that granted clemency for Flores' nephews.

Another man, identified as Victim-8, who was attacked while visiting his family in Venezuela in 2023, suffered a severe back injury, causing him to be hospitalized. He too was taken to the same prison, where he endured electric shocks to the body and a military intelligence officer put a gun in his mouth, prosecutors said. He was told, according to court papers, that the only reason he was alive was that, as an American, he could be used as a bargaining chip.

Victim-9, an American citizen living in Venezuela, suffered similar beatings. He was taken to the basement of a government building on Jan. 29, 2025, where military police put a hood over his head and beat him for days in the head and body, authorities said. He suffered permanent injuries.

Aside from abusing Americans, Manhattan federal prosecutors charge that Maduro and his wife used their authority at the top of the country's power structure to suppress dissent among the country's citizens and exert control over their alleged drug trafficking operation.

He orchestrated the kidnapping of personnel inside the Venezuelan military to root out confederates, threatening their children if they did not confess, the indictment said. 

Maduro sometimes micromanaged the torture, suggesting ways to pressure political prisoners, court papers show.

"If an arrestee was refusing to talk, Maduro would ask questions including, 'what can we do to make them talk,' and would encourage bringing additional 'pressure,'" according to court papers. "On occasion, Maduro made suggestions for particular torture techniques, saying 'do not let them sleep,' or 'pour water on them,' at times laughing after hearing about the abuse of prisoners."

The former Venezuelan first lady was in court on Thursday to request to be released on bail for health reasons while she awaits trial

Flores said she has lost 25 pounds and two teeth while being held in federal jail over the last 10 months. She suffers from a heart condition that has further caused her health to deteriorate, she said.

U.S. District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein questioned the severity of her health condition, noting that she had declined to get treatment from jail medical personnel.

He denied the request to release Flores, citing the risk that she would flee the country and the danger that she poses to the community.

"The risk she presents is formidable, with all the money involved and all the contacts that Ms. Flores has in Venezuela. The risk is serious," he said. "The evidence is strong. Very strong."