Venezuela's ex-leader Nicolás Maduro charged with conspiracy to commit torture

What the report says

U.S. prosecutors have filed fresh charges against Venezuela’s former leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, accusing them of conspiracy to commit torture. According to the BBC’s reporting, the new indictment was made public on Thursday and adds to earlier drug-trafficking and weapons allegations that both have denied. The couple, who are 63 and 69 respectively, have been in U.S. custody since January after being seized in a pre-dawn raid in Caracas and held in a detention centre in Brooklyn.

The indictment says the alleged torture took place while Maduro was in power and involved U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela. Prosecutors accuse the pair of helping sustain a system of repression built on political violence, arbitrary detention and abuse of detainees. The BBC said the court filing lists multiple forms of abuse, including electric shocks, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, isolation, starvation and psychological torture.

The case adds a new human-rights dimension to the long-running U.S. prosecution of Maduro and Flores. The BBC noted that Venezuelan rights groups and former prisoners have for years described abuse in the country’s jails, and that the accusations in the new indictment echo those accounts. Flores is alleged to have played a central role in the repressive system, including ordering torture and receiving updates on specific prisoners. Their trial is currently scheduled for June 2027.