NEW YORK — U.S. authorities charged former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with conspiring to torture his fellow citizens in order to maintain his hold on power. The new indictment, unsealed Thursday, adds pressure on the ousted authoritarian leader already fighting drug trafficking offenses.
Maduro, who was previously charged with participating in a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S., is now also facing allegations of human rights abuses during his reign as president of the oil-rich South American nation.
"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," says the revised indictment, which newly charges Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with torture conspiracy.
The allegations include electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation at Maduro's behest.
Asserting that thousands of Venezuelans were "harassed, threatened, arrested, prosecuted, assaulted, tortured, or killed" by people acting at the behest of the government that Maduro controlled, the indictment alleges that the abuse included electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation. Maduro, the indictment claims, signed off on methods of torture and personally threatened the killing of one prisoner's child "as a form of psychological torture."
A message seeking comment was sent to Maduro's lawyer; Flores was in court for a previously scheduled hearing, where her attorney said he hadn't yet had time to review the new allegations. Both Maduro and Flores have been behind bars in New York since early January when forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid.
Both have pleaded not guilty in the U.S. drug case first brought years ago against them and numerous alleged co-conspirators. They had already been facing potential life prison sentences if convicted.
Maduro has been under investigation for years by the International Criminal Court over allegations of crimes against humanity, tied to his crackdown on opponents. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
Alleged torture victims included U.S. citizens
The revised indictment includes several mentions of the involvement of Venezuela's feared DGCIM military intelligence agency, which was headed for many years by one of Maduro's co-defendants, Gen. Hugo Carvajal. He broke with Maduro years ago, pleaded guilty last year to drug trafficking charges in New York, and has offered to testify against his former boss.
The indictment alleges that the torture victims included three U.S. citizens, who were not named in the court documents.
One of those Americans was punched, subjected to electric shocks and forced to eat his own vomit during eight months of imprisonment, the indictment says. Another was beaten badly enough to necessitate a long hospital stay and had a gun stuck in his mouth. A third was handcuffed, hooded and beaten for two days every half an hour, suffering a permanent eye injury, the indictment said.
Maduro has long ignored lawsuits brought in U.S. courts by Americans who alleged they were beaten while in custody in Venezuela.
Former first lady seeks release for medical treatment
Flores, meanwhile, was in court Thursday so her lawyers could urge a judge to free her from jail and put her under house arrest because she has heart problems.
Their attorneys have asked for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country.
Lawyers for Flores, 69, have also argued that she has medical issues that cannot be treated effectively in jail, and that she could instead be allowed to live under 24-hour guard at a residence in New York.
They also said she suffered permanent scarring when she was "thrown against a wall or dresser" during the U.S. military action that led to her capture.
Her lawyers say she has lost 25 pounds (11 kilograms) while imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and has been told that she might need heart surgery. They said she has "lingering lightheadedness, dizziness and shortness of breath" and might have suffered a minor heart attack in July.
Prosecutors opposed the bail request. In a court filing, they wrote that Flores would pose an "extreme risk of flight and danger to the public" if released. They also said she has been taken from the jail to get treatment at a local hospital, when care was needed.
President Donald Trump's administration has defended the raid to capture Maduro as a "surgical law enforcement operation." Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.
Flores is charged with participating in a cocaine importation conspiracy with her husband, Maduro, who served as Venezuela's president from 2013 until his capture by American forces in January.
Lawyers for Flores said she was no threat to flee because she is "intent on supporting her husband with her constant presence."
