US Adds Torture-Conspiracy Charge Against Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores
U.S. federal prosecutors on Thursday added a conspiracy to commit torture charge against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, expanding an existing criminal case in Manhattan.
The superseding indictment alleges that Maduro and Flores oversaw a system involving Venezuela’s military, intelligence agencies and security forces that used arbitrary detention, violence and torture to suppress political opponents and maintain power. Prosecutors say the conspiracy operated from at least 1999 through 2025 and targeted Venezuelan dissidents as well as U.S. citizens.
The alleged methods included electric shocks, beatings, asphyxiation, simulated drowning, sexual assault, forced nudity, starvation, isolation and threats against detainees’ families. Prosecutors allege Maduro authorized torture, received updates about interrogations and instructed officials to intensify …