US charges Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores with conspiring to torture prisoners, including Americans

Key takeaways

• US prosecutors in New York unsealed a superseding indictment on 8 October charging former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 69, with conspiring to commit torture.
• The torture charge is added to existing counts of narcoterrorism, cocaine-importation conspiracy and weapons offences.
• Prosecutors say the alleged torture included electric shocks, asphyxiation, rape and threats to kill victims' families, and that US citizens were among the victims.
• Maduro's lawyer says he denies the charges and "looks forward to his day in court". Both have pleaded not guilty in the drug case.
• An indictment is only an allegation. Both are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

How Maduro ended up in a US court

Maduro, who was Venezuela's president from 2013, and Flores were seized from their home in Caracas by the US military in January 2026 and flown to New York to face drug-trafficking charges. The case is being heard in federal court in Manhattan. Their lawyers have asked for it to be dismissed, arguing they have immunity as a former head of state and first lady.

What the new indictment says

According to the US Justice Department:

• For more than two decades, Maduro and Flores allegedly sat at the top of a system that used arbitrary detention and torture to silence opponents and keep them in power.
• Methods listed include electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation and threats against relatives.
• The indictment says Maduro approved torture methods proposed by a senior officer and received updates on specific prisoners, according to the AP's reading of the court papers.
• Flores, a former attorney general, allegedly helped build the system and ordered the torture of specific people.

The indictment does not name victims. The AP reports that some descriptions match well-known cases, such as opposition leader Leopoldo López, former defence minister Raúl Baduel, who died in custody in 2021, and opposition politician Fernando Albán, who died after a fall from an intelligence building in 2018.

Three American victims are described. One matches Osman Khan, who was held for eight months in 2022 and later won a civil judgment against Maduro's officials together with former US Marine Matthew Heath.

The charges and possible penalties

Penalties as listed by the Justice Department; any sentence would be decided by a judge.

What each side says

• US Attorney Jamie McDonald said the indictment alleges conduct that is "truly unthinkable".
• Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, said his client denies the charges. Flores's lawyer said he had not yet had time to review them.
• Venezuela's government, now led by acting president Delcy Rodríguez, had not commented by the time of writing.

On the same day, Judge Alvin Hellerstein turned down Flores's request to be released to house arrest for medical treatment, agreeing with prosecutors that she is a flight risk.

Why it matters

Prosecuting a former foreign leader for torture in a US court is very rare. Human rights experts note that torture can be tried by any competent court regardless of the victims' nationality, but some, like former Human Rights Watch head Kenneth Roth, warn about "selectivity" in which cases get brought. Maduro has also been under investigation by the International Criminal Court for years over alleged crimes against humanity, which he denies.