U.S. prosecutors on Thursday (October 8, 2026) charged ousted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores with conspiring to torture political opponents and American citizens, adding to the drug trafficking case the couple already faced.
Mr. In a statement, Mr. Maduro (63), and Ms. Flores, (69), were captured on January 3 in their Caracas home during a U.S. military operation ordered by President Donald Trump, and were flown to New York to face drug charges against them that were announced that same day. A superseding indictment filed in Manhattan federal court on Thursday (October 8, 2026) added the torture count to the existing criminal case.
Maduro’s lawyer Barry Pollack said, “President Maduro denies the charges in the new indictment and looks forward to his day in court.”
Before Mr. The indictment alleged that thousands of Venezuelans were threatened, arrested, tortured or killed at the hands of the state between 1999 and 2025. Maduro became President in 2013, both he and Flores held positions in the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government. Maduro in 2013 ordered the arrest of a Venezuelan military officer he suspected of planning a coup. Members of Venezuela’s military counterintelligence directorate then interrogated the officer while shocking the individual with a live electric wire around 20 times and hung the individual by the hands and feet for several minutes at a time, prosecutors said. In 2022, an American citizen detained while entering Venezuela was accused of conspiring to assassinate Mr.
In one instance, prosecutors said, Mr. Maduro and was tortured by military counterintelligence officers through beatings and shocks to the person’s arms, legs and genitals, according to the indictment.
In her bail hearing on Thursday (October 8, 2026), Ms. Since Mr. Maduro’s capture, Venezuela has boosted cooperation with the U.S. under the leadership of his former Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez.
Flores’ lawyer Mark Donnelly said he had not had time to review the new charges with his client.
