The deposed president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, declared themselves innocent on Thursday in relation to a new U.S. indictment accusing them of conspiring to torture political opponents.
The additional charges, filed last Thursday, significantly broadened the U.S. criminal case against Maduro, 63, and Flores, 70. Previously, they had already pleaded innocent to charges of abusing power to help drug traffickers transport cocaine.
Maduro and Flores, captured by the U.S. Armed Forces in an operation carried out in January under the direction of President Donald Trump and transported by plane to New York, presented their pleadings at an indictment hearing before Judge Alvin Hellerstein, at the federal courthouse in Manhattan. They wore beige prison uniforms and were ankle-shackled during the hearing.
When Judge Hellerstein asked what their statement would be, Maduro said that the accusations had already been made previously and were false.
“I saw everything, Judge Hellerstein,” Maduro said, referring to the indictment. “I reject this document in its entirety.”
The judge interrupted Maduro as he spoke and said that a declaration of innocence would be entered in his name.
Flores stated: “I am completely innocent. I am not guilty.”
Maduro and Flores are not accused of personally committing any acts of torture. Each would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 50 years in prison if convicted on all charges.
Hellerstein postponed the start date of the trial by two weeks, to June 14, 2027, due to the new charges.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Manhattan say that Maduro ordered Venezuelan authorities to torture opposition politicians and military officers accused of conspiring against him to maintain power in the South American country.
In an alleged incident described in the indictment, Maduro, in 2014, ordered authorities to abduct military personnel to extract information about possible dissidents and told the authorities to “press them harder” when some remained defiant.
Flores agreed with the plan at the meeting and rejected an alternative suggestion to obtain information by infiltrating the ranks, according to the indictment.
Relations between Maduro, a socialist, and the United States had been strained during his 13 years in power leading the oil-rich country.
Several U.S. administrations imposed sanctions on Venezuelan officials and major state-owned companies, alleging alleged human rights violations, corruption and electoral fraud. Maduro accused the United States of seeking his removal to gain greater control over the country’s natural resources.
The pressure campaign culminated on January 3, when the U.S. Armed Forces captured Maduro and Flores at their Caracas home and took them to the United States to answer charges of drug trafficking announced on that same day. Since then, they have been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Maduro’s former vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, has led Venezuela since the capture and has intensified cooperation with the United States. Trump has highlighted Maduro’s capture and the restructuring of relations with Venezuela as an important foreign policy success ahead of the midterm elections on November 3.
