Maduro and wife face US ‘torture conspiracy’ charges as Venezuela abuses case widens

New Delhi: US prosecutors have charged Venezuela’s former president, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, with conspiring to torture detainees, including American citizens, expanding a criminal case previously centred on drugs and weapons allegations. The revised indictment, made public in Manhattan on Thursday, alleges that the couple used detention, violence and torture to suppress opponents and maintain their hold on power.

The new charges broaden the prosecution’s focus to the treatment of prisoners under Maduro’s government and his alleged personal involvement in directing abuses. Flores also faces an additional narco-terrorism charge, while both defendants are due to be arraigned on the new counts at a later date.

According to the prosecution, Maduro authorized torture against particular individuals, commanded the security units responsible and received reports about prisoners’ treatment. Flores allegedly helped establish the system, ordered abuses and monitored the treatment of selected detainees to protect relatives involved in unlawful activities.

The alleged methods included electric shocks, suffocation, sexual violence, deprivation of food, prolonged isolation and threats against prisoners’ families. Prosecutors contend that these practices served a political purpose: intimidating perceived opponents and preventing challenges to the governing leadership.

The Associated Press reported that three alleged victims described in the indictment are American citizens whose names have been withheld. Their accounts include severe beatings, electric shocks and injuries requiring hospital treatment, with one detainee allegedly suffering permanent damage to an eye.

One American visiting family was allegedly attacked, hospitalized and subjected to further abuse during his transfer to prison. The indictment says a torturer told him that his nationality made him useful for a possible prisoner exchange with Washington, indicating that prosecutors also view some detentions as instruments of diplomatic pressure.

Maduro denies the new allegations, his lawyer said, and the couple have previously pleaded not guilty to the drugs and weapons charges. Their defence has also sought dismissal on immunity grounds, arguing that their positions as the leader and first lady of a sovereign country shield them from prosecution.

Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have been detained at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since US forces captured them at their Caracas home on January 3 this year. Their trial is scheduled to begin on June 1, 2027.

Separately, the federal judge, Alvin Hellerstein, rejected Flores’s application for release on medical grounds after her lawyers proposed a New York-area residence with continuous private security. Prosecutors opposed the request, arguing that she was receiving adequate medical care and that release would create risks of flight and witness intimidation.

The accusations have a substantial history beyond the US prosecution: a UN fact-finding mission reported in 2022 that Venezuela’s military and civilian intelligence agencies played central roles in repressing perceived government opponents. Investigators documented 122 military-intelligence detention cases, including 77 involving torture, sexual violence or other cruel treatment, drawing on interviews and documentary evidence because they were denied access to Venezuela.

Venezuela’s representatives rejected those findings as politically motivated, while Maduro has also faced an international criminal court investigation into alleged crimes against humanity. Those proceedings and UN findings are separate from the American criminal case, in which the prosecution must establish the defendants’ responsibility for the offences charged.

The change in Venezuela’s leadership has not ended concerns about detainees’ treatment. Although hundreds of political prisoners have been freed under Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodríguez, the UN human rights chief has reported continuing torture allegations, while the prisoners’ rights group Foro Penal says more than 300 political prisoners remain detained.