Nicolas Maduro is seen in handcuffs after landing at a Manhattan helipad, escorted by armed Federal agents on January 5 in New York City. Photo: XNY/Star Max/GC Images
Prosecutors accused former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife of orchestrating the torture of people held in his regime’s custody, piling onto the narcoterrorism charges they already face in a fresh indictment unveiled Thursday.
The charges add new fuel to the historic prosecution seeking to hold the strongman-turned-prisoner accountable for alleged crimes against Americans and alleged abuse of power.
- Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty in January to drug- and weapon-related charges. They have been held in the U.S. since their stunning capture from Caracas earlier this year.
- Maduro’s attorney did not immediately respond to Axios’ request for comment.
Maduro “authorized the use of torture against specific individuals and oversaw a system designed to use torture, arbitrary detention, and violence as a means of repression against the political opposition,” a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York alleged.
- The new indictment charges Maduro and Flores with conspiracy to commit torture, alleging they engaged in a conspiracy to inflict “severe physical and mental pain and suffering to repress and punish political opposition.”
What’s inside: The indictment outlines a series of disturbing torture tactics — including electrocution, beatings, isolation and simulated drowning — allegedly employed at Maduro’s direction to quell political opposition.
- “As opposition to the ruling regime intensified,” Maduro allegedly “continued to oversee the development of a more systematic approach to unlawfully arresting and torturing dissidents,” per the indictment, ordering who would be arrested and tortured.
- One unnamed victim who the indictment described as “friendly” with “a famous opponent of the regime” was told by his captors that they would kill his young child, whose hair color they referenced.
- It also details abuse against Americans, including one who was allegedly falsely accused of participating in a conspiracy to kill Maduro. That victim was allegedly tortured with electric shocks, asphyxiation and forced injection of a substance that made him have seizures.
Americans who were formerly imprisoned in Venezuela have accused Maduro of heading a web of corruption that used Americans as negotiating tools.
- In a lawsuit filed last year, Matthew Heath and Osman Khan, two Americans freed in a 2022 prisoner swap, alleged they were subjected to electrocution, suffocation, severe beatings and food and water deprivation, among other threats and forms of torture.
- Members of a group of oil executives, known as the CITGO-6, also released in October 2022,alleged they faced physical and emotional torture while in Venezuelan custody.
Their trial is set to begin on June 1, 2027.
- Flores’ legal team has sought her release ahead of the trial, citing her heart issues and saying that since she’s entered custody, she’s lost two molars and more than 25 pounds
Maduro ally pleads guilty to money laundering
Alex Saab, an ally and former minister of Venezuela’s ex-President Nicolás Maduro, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to launder proceeds from a bribery and fraud scheme in Venezuela and the U.S., prosecutors said.
Federal prosecutors allege that Saab previously oversaw funding for Maduro, and his plea deal could bolster U.S. prosecutors’ separate case against the former Venezuelan leader, who is awaiting trial in New York.
The 55-year-old Colombian-born businessman agreed to forfeit $195 million as he pleaded guilty in federal court in Miami to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.
Axios
