On Wednesday, US officials revealed to the media that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores are facing new criminal charges from the US Department of Justice for their alleged involvement in detaining and torturing American citizens in Venezuela. These new charges are expected to be formally announced as early as Thursday.
According to CNN reports, sources briefed on the investigation have disclosed that the new charges involve over ten American citizens who were “wrongly detained” in Venezuelan prisons during Maduro’s presidency. Investigators are also considering charging several others involved in the alleged torture.
Flores is expected to attend a hearing on Thursday, with her defense attorney requesting home confinement before the trial. Maduro’s lawyer argued on September 3rd that Maduro is entitled to head of state immunity and requested the dismissal of the charges.
However, prosecutors pointed out that the current Venezuelan government did not assert Maduro’s immunity claim, and legal experts believe that Maduro’s claim is unlikely to succeed. The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office, which brought the lawsuit, declined to comment on the matter. Lawyers for Maduro and Flores have not responded to the new developments.
On January 3rd, Maduro and his wife were arrested by the US military at their residence in Caracas, Venezuela, and subsequently taken to a federal prison in Brooklyn, New York, where they are currently being held without bail. They are charged with crimes such as drug trafficking, terrorism, and smuggling, to which they have both pleaded not guilty. Their trial is scheduled to begin on June 1, 2027.
Details regarding the new accusations, including the identities of torture victims, have not been publicly disclosed. During Maduro’s administration, relations with the US were tense, resulting in the detention of numerous American citizens. The American government and human rights activists accused the Venezuelan authorities of using these individuals as political bargaining chips to compel the US to lift sanctions.
In October 2022, Matthew Heath and Osman Khan, who were released in a prisoner exchange, alleged that they were subjected to waterboarding, electric shocks, threats of sexual assault, forced ingestion of psychotropic drugs, and solitary confinement during their captivity. Heath, a former US Marine, attempted suicide while in detention.
Furthermore, the “Citgo 6,” who were lured to Venezuela in 2017 and imprisoned on corruption charges for nearly five years, have also alleged torture during their incarceration. Tomeu Vadell, Alirio Jose Zambrano, and Jose Luis Zambrano, involved in a lawsuit against their employer Citgo, a US petroleum company, testified to being tortured in prison.
These individuals were mostly held in the notorious General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) facility. A United Nations report indicated that this institution is responsible for arbitrary detention, abuse, and torture of political opponents and their families, using cruel methods such as electric shocks, suffocation with plastic bags, waterboarding, beatings, sexual violence, water and food deprivation, and forced painful positions to extract information, intimidate, and punish prisoners.