The deposed dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and Cilia Flores, his wife and former first lady, pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit torture before a Manhattan court in New York, this Thursday (15).
He said the set of allegations are false and he denies them all. She said she was “completely innocent”. "I'm not guilty."
The action of the duo who led the Chavista regime since the death of Hugo Chávez, in 2013, until January 2026, when a United States operation captured them in Caracas and transferred them to a New York prison on charges of narco-terrorism, was already expected.
Prosecutors presented the new accusation of torture on the 8th, at the hearing in which the judge in the case denied Cilia's request for provisional release due to the alleged deterioration of her health during the last eight months in prison.
This Thursday's hearing was held to formally present the State's accusation and hear from the defendants. According to this additional accusation, the couple led a system of repression that resorted to the practice of electric shocks, asphyxiation, waterboarding, rape, forced nudity, starvation, sleep deprivation, prolonged isolation and death threats to family members of the regime's political prisoners. Among the prisoners, not only Venezuelan citizens, but also Americans.
The expansion of judicial pressure against Maduro occurs in parallel with the abandonment of support by his Chavista allies in Venezuela for his case. The dictator's and Cilia's freedom agenda is no longer part of the Chavista playbook and, little by little, former allies of his have had their criminal records alleviated by Donald Trump's government.
The most recent case was that of the president of the Legislative Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, who is also the brother of interim leader Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro's number 2 who the US kept in power and whose government it now supervises. Washington announced this Wednesday (14) the suspension of all sanctions against Jorge.
People with knowledge of the case in Caracas say that an agreement has also been reached with Diosdado Cabello, Minister of the Interior and responsible for coordinating the so-called "collectives", militias of armed citizens created by Chavismo.
Originally, Maduro and Flores are accused of abusing public positions for more than 25 years to enrich themselves and stay in power through corruption, drug trafficking and serious human rights violations. The American court states that, through the Cartel de los Soles, the duo and other members of the high Chavista circle trafficked drugs in collaboration with the Venezuelan Army. They would act, prosecutors say, in collusion with organizations such as the FARC, the ELN (National Liberation Army) and the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel.
Added together, the sentences for the crimes of which they are accused could reach 50 years in prison, the mandatory minimum sentence, up to life in prison: 20 years for narcoterrorism; 20 years for torture; 10 years for importing drugs into the US. Maduro is 63 years old. Cilia is 70, completed this Thursday.
The abandonment of these figures occurs at the same time that negotiations for a democratic transition in Caracas are intensifying, even though in a model largely criticized by leaders such as Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, who has been removed from the process.
This week Dinorah Figuera, a former congresswoman who was in exile due to the Chavista persecution and who was rehabilitated by the USA to lead the transition dialogues, was with the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in Washington.
So far, there has already been a reform of the Venezuelan Supreme Court, which will elect 32 new judges by December, in an attempt to get rid of Chavista dominance in the Court; the reestablishment of access to previously blocked means of communication; the reform of the so-called Law Against Hate, which was used to arrest opponents; the release of more than a thousand political prisoners; and the return to Venezuela of some leaders who were in exile, such as María Corina's right-hand woman, journalist Claudia Macero.
