Electric shocks and sexual violence: U.S. prosecutors add conspiracy-to-torture charge against Maduro couple

[Financial News] U.S. prosecutors have brought additional charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife, Cilia Flores, accusing them of directing and conspiring to have prisoners, including Americans, brutally tortured. The additional allegations of severe human rights abuses committed during their time in power, on top of existing charges of narco-terrorism and illegal possession of weapons, are expected to expose them to significantly harsher penalties.
According to AFP and other international news outlets on the 8th (local time), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York said it had added conspiracy to torture charges against the Maduro couple in an amended indictment filed that day in Manhattan federal court. If convicted, each could face a minimum of 50 years in prison.
The indictment says the two built and oversaw a repressive system that relied on detention and torture to suppress political opponents and maintain and consolidate power after Maduro took office in 2013. FBI Director Kash Patel said about 10 Americans detained in Venezuela had endured severe torture, including electric shocks, asphyxiation, sexual violence, forced stripping, beatings and prolonged solitary confinement.
The indictment details the alleged torture of nine victims, including three Americans. According to prosecutors, Venezuelan authorities applied electric shocks to the arms, legs and genitals of an American accused of plotting to assassinate Maduro in 2022, and forcibly injected him with a substance that induces seizures. Another American, detained while visiting family, suffered permanent eye damage after a severe beating. Investigators found that an assailant told the American, “We’re keeping you alive because you’re worth using in prisoner-swap negotiations with the United States.”
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X that “this additional indictment demonstrates the administration’s firm commitment to delivering justice to victims of torture, narco-terrorism and organized crime.”
Former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros and his wife, who ruled the country with an iron fist for 13 years, were seized in a U.S. military operation in the capital, Caracas, on January 3 and taken to New York, where they are being held at the Brooklyn Federal Detention Center. Their trial is expected to get underway next June. Maduro’s lawyer has denied all the charges, saying Maduro was illegally abducted to the United States and signaling a courtroom battle.
Meanwhile, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied a request by Flores’s legal team for bail and home confinement on the grounds of her deteriorating health. The judge said he rejected the request because Flores, who appeared in court wearing a prisoner’s T-shirt, seemed to be in relatively good health.
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