US adds torture conspiracy charge against Maduro and Cilia Flores

Federal prosecutors in the United States filed a superseding indictment in New York on Thursday that adds a charge of conspiracy to commit torture against Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, and his wife, Cilia Flores, according to CBS News. It joins the drug trafficking charges they already faced.

Prosecutors say Maduro's government tortured more than a dozen Americans. According to CBS, FBI Director Kash Patel listed drugs, electrocution and sexual assault among the methods. In the cases described, an American arrested in 2022 suffered seizures after being injected, and another, jailed in 2023, was severely beaten by intelligence agents. According to the indictment, Maduro ordered a defiant prisoner to be treated more harshly: "squeeze them harder." All of this is prosecutors' allegations, not proven fact.

The US military captured Maduro (63) and Flores (69) at their home in Caracas on Jan. 3, 2026. They remain in custody in Brooklyn. Both pleaded not guilty in the drug case, and the trial is set for June 1, 2027, according to Reuters, via ABC News. If Flores is convicted on those charges, she faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years.

The same day, Flores's defense asked for bail so she could undergo a heart procedure. The judge denied it, according to CBS, because she has access to "considerable funds." The defense also asked to postpone the reading of the new charge, and the judge granted it.

Venezuela is now governed by Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro's former vice president, who has strengthened cooperation with Washington. The sources consulted give no date for the defendants to respond to the new charge, which is the next thing the court record has to settle.