Maduro and his wife appear in New York City court on new charges of conspiracy to torture.
Published October 15, 2026
Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have pleaded not guilty to new charges of “conspiracy to torture” that were released last week.
Mr. Maduro and Mr. Flores appeared in court in New York City on Thursday after being abducted from Caracas in a U.S. military operation in January.
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The pair had previously pleaded not guilty to several other charges, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.
President Maduro spoke briefly in court in January, days after his abduction by U.S. forces.
“I’m innocent. I’m not guilty. I’m a decent man. I’m still the president of my country,” Maduro said at the time, adding that he had been “kidnapped.”
U.S. Attorney Jamie MacDonald said last week that the couple engaged in a “conspiracy to commit torture, including the torture of United States citizens, in addition to the drug trafficking and weapons crimes they have already been charged with” for more than two decades.
The new indictment says Mr. Maduro and Mr. Flores oversaw a system of torture, arbitrary detention, and violence as a means of targeting “individuals perceived as rebels and threats to illegal drug activities” and as “a means of repression against political opposition.”
The report cited several instances in which Mr. Maduro and Mr. Flores allegedly specifically identified targeted individuals, asked for updates on torture, and suggested methods.
In one instance in 2014, Maduro urged enforcement officials to work harder to extract information from detained military personnel, according to the indictment.
“Squeeze harder,” he is said to have said. In another incident, Maduro is accused of dousing a detainee with water after hinting that he was sleep deprived.
According to the indictment, abuses committed under Maduro’s regime included beatings, electrocution, and intimidation of detainees’ families. U.S. prosecutors did not charge Mr. Maduro or Mr. Flores with direct participation in the torture.
Maduro became Venezuela’s president in 2013, but his re-election in 2024 has been repeatedly challenged in recent days by opposition groups and outside observers.
Interim President Delcy Rodríguez, Maduro’s vice president, has led the country since his abduction in January.
She initially denounced the U.S. action as an “unlawful and unlawful kidnapping.”
But he has remained close to the Trump administration, overseeing efforts to open the national oil industry to foreign companies.
