Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, wife Celia Flores charged with torture in new indictment

The U.S. government announced today it was adding torture related charges to those already faced by former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

The details in the indictment about the alleged torture of prisoners, filed in a U.S. court, were graphic, including accusations of "electric shock, asphyxiation, starvation, beatings and rape."

Prosecutors alleged the Maduro government tortured and killed thousands of Venezuelans. The indictment also included the stories of three U.S. victims, who prosecutors allege were tortured while held in custody.

Maduro and Flores have been behind bars in New York since early January when U.S. military forces seized them from their Caracas home in a nighttime raid.

They already face potential life prison sentences if convicted on their January charges of being part of a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S.

Separately today, a U.S. judge denied a request by Flores to be released on bail for medical reasons.

Flores' lawyers had said their client needs a cardiac procedure and want her released to recover in a New York City residence with round-the-clock private security.

Speaking to reporters outside a New York courthouse today, U.S. Attorney James M. McDonald said the indictment lays out allegations of conduct that was "truly unthinkable."

He said the indictment charges that Maduro, Flores, and other Venezuelan leaders tried to silence political opposition "through murder and threats to murder victims' families, electric shock, asphyxiation, starvation, so-called punishment cells, beatings and rape."

"The members of Maduro's broad conspiracy were not just sitting behind a desk. These members of the conspiracy were holding a shovel."

McDonald said that today they were also adding Flores to the narco terrorism charge.

Warning: This entry includes alleged details of torture.

A U.S. citizen who alleges he was tortured while held in custody in Venezuela for two years says "it's incredible to see a dictator in court."

"The Maduro prosecution will do more to prevent the kidnapping of Americans by rogue regimes than 100 press releases from the United Nations," Matthew Heath, a former U.S. marine corporal from Tennessee, told The Associated Press.

Heath, who was arrested at a roadblock in Venezuela in 2020, had separately sued Maduro in a U.S. court over the alleged beatings he said he received.

In May, Heath and another former prisoner won a $300 million US default judgment against Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials. But Maduro has ignored such lawsuits.

The lawsuit included allegations of waterboarding, electrocution, threats of rape with a nightstick and administration of mind-altering medications, all taking place in a cramped cell, AP reported.

A U.S. district judge has denied the release of Cilia Flores, who was attempting to get bail for medical reasons.

A U.S. district judge said Cilia Flores, who appeared in court on Thursday, looks no worse than her previous court appearance, as her lawyers attempt to get her released on bail for medical reasons.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said Flores appeared to be relatively healthy, Reuters reported.

"For whatever it's worth, her appearance today is no worse and perhaps a little better than when I ⁠first met ⁠with her on her arraignment," Hellerstein said.

Flores' lawyers say their client needs a cardiac procedure and want her released to recover in a New York City residence with round-the-clock private security.

They say she is ⁠not a danger to the community. Prosecutors oppose her release.

The indictment, according to The Associated Press, claims that Maduro "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."

It alleges Maduro and Flores stayed in power by "terrorizing perceived opponents through persecution and violence."

Prosecutors claim that thousands of Venezuelans were "harassed, threatened, arrested, prosecuted, assaulted, tortured or killed" by people acting at the behest of the government Maduro controlled.

The allegations include electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation at Maduro's behest. The indictment claims that Maduro signed off on methods of torture and personally threatened the killing of one prisoner’s child "as a form of psychological torture."

Warning: This entry includes details of torture.

Prosecutors, according to Reuters, allege that Maduro's military ⁠counterintelligence officers tortured prisoners.

One claim, according to the indictment, is that in 2013, Maduro ordered the arrest of a Venezuelan military officer he suspected of planning a coup.

The officer was interrogated and shocked with a live electric wire around 20 times, prosecutors say. He was also hung by his hand and feet for several minutes, according to the claim.

In another incident in 2022, a U.S. citizen accused of conspiring to assassinate ⁠Maduro was allegedly tortured through beatings and shocks to the person's arms, legs ‌and genitals according to the indictment, Reuters reported.

The indictment, according to Reuters, specifically charges Maduro and Flores with conspiracy to commit torture.

They have been accused of torturing political opponents, including Americans, to hold onto their power in Venezuela.

This charge is in addition to the drug trafficking charges they already face.

Flores's lawyers 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.

They also said she has lost 11 kilograms while imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and has been told that she might need heart surgery.

They said she also suffers from "lingering lightheadedness, dizziness and shortness of breath" and might have suffered a minor heart attack in July.

Prosecutors opposed their bail request in September. 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.

U.S. 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.

The couple's attorneys have previously 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.

The United States, on the other hand, will likely argue it does not recognize Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, and hasn't since 2019, when it said his re-election was fraudulent.

"I could see the Department of Justice convincing a judge of their position that he actually isn't a true head of state and he was not properly elected, and I think most nations in the world would agree with that," Margaret Donovan, a Yale Law School lecturer and former U.S. federal prosecutor, told CBC News in January.

Still, the defence is a natural choice given some parallels with the U.S.'s own leadership, according to Donovan

"Of course, we have a leader here in the United States … who is very keen on having immunity from criminal offences when you are the head of state," she said.

Toward the end of the couple's first brief court appearance in January, where both Maduro and Flores pleaded not guilty, Maduro's defence lawyer Barry J. Pollack said his client "is head of a sovereign state and entitled to the privilege" that the status ensures.

-With files from The Associated Press