Maduro charged with torturing Americans as wife denied bail

Federal prosecutors unsealed a new conspiracy to commit torture count against Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, minutes before a Manhattan bail hearing. The indictment describes electric shock, rape, starvation, and forced vomiting of victims going back to 2006, including at least three American citizens tortured as recently as 2025.

The new charge raises the couple's minimum exposure to 50 years. Flores, citing a heart condition and weight loss in a crowded Brooklyn jail unit, sought release to a private residence with round-the-clock security.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied bail, saying the allegations were too serious and her medical argument premature, while noting her connections to Venezuela's government made the release risk too great. Maduro's team maintains the couple cannot be tried in the U.S. at all due to sovereign immunity.

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