Venezuela’s Maduro pleads not guilty to US conspiracy to torture charges

Maduro and wife appear in New York City court after new ‘conspiracy to commit torture’ charges.

Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores have pleaded not guilty to new charges of ‘conspiracy to commit torture’, which were unsealed last week.

Maduro and Flores appeared in a New York City courtroom on Thursday after being abducted from Caracas in a United States military operation in January.

The pair had previously pleaded not guilty to several other charges, including narco-terrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy and possession of machineguns and destructive devices.

Maduro spoke briefly at his January court appearance, days after the US military abduction.

“I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country,” Maduro said then, adding that he had been “kidnapped”.

US Attorney Jamie McDonald said last week that the couple had for more than two decades “engaged in a conspiracy to commit torture, including the torture of United States citizens, in addition to the narcotics trafficking and weapons offences already charged”.

The new indictment said that Maduro and Flores oversaw a system of torture, arbitrary detention, and violence as a means to target “individuals viewed as disloyal or a threat to their illegal narcotics activity” as well as a “means of repression against the political opposition”.

It pointed to several instances where Maduro and Flores are alleged to have  specifically identified individuals to be targeted, asked for updates on the torture, or suggested techniques.

In one instance in 2014, Maduro urged his enforcers to work harder to extract information from detained military personnel, according to the indictment.

“Squeeze them harder,” he allegedly said. In another, Maduro is accused of suggesting sleep deprivation and pouring water on detainees.

Abuses committed under Maduro’s rule included beatings, electrocutions and threatening family members of detainees, the indictment said. US prosecutors did not accuse Maduro or Flores of directly taking part in the torture.

Maduro became president of Venezuela in 2013, and his re-elections, most recently in 2024, were repeatedly contested by opposition figures and outside monitors.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez, Maduro’s vice president, has led the country since Maduro’s abduction in January.

She had initially decried the US action as “illegal, illegitimate kidnapping”.

However, she has since remained close to the Trump administration, including overseeing efforts to open the country’s state-owned oil industry to foreign companies.