Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, and his wife Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro have been charged in the United States with conspiring to commit torture, as well as narcoterrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and weapons offences.
The charges were announced by the US Department of Justice on Thursday. Prosecutors allege that the couple and other Venezuelan leaders used government institutions to suppress dissent and facilitate drug trafficking.
FBI director Kash Patel said the Maduro regime had tortured countless Americans held in Venezuelan custody. He alleged that detainees were subjected to “drugs, electric shock, sexual assault, and more”.
Jamie McDonald, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the indictment accused the couple and other Venezuelan officials of abusing positions of trust to enrich themselves through “narco-terrorism, cocaine trafficking, and other corruption”.
Mr McDonald also alleged that Venezuelan military and law enforcement bodies under their control were used to flood the United States with illegal narcotics.
He said the indictment further alleged that the defendants conspired to repress dissent by ordering or allowing violence, threats and physical torture “under colour of law”.
Maduro was Venezuela’s president for almost 13 years, from April 2013 until the United States government toppled his regime and took him into custody earlier this year, according to the allegations outlined in the case.
He was brought to the United States and detained at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, New York. A photograph released in August showed him behind bars making peace signs; he described it as a “small gift of love and hope” for his grandchildren, children and supporters.
Maduro’s attorney has been contacted for comment, but no response had been received.
