Rally in Caracas in January demanding the release of Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. (AFP)
Mérida, October 16, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores have rejected a new indictment amid an ongoing prosecution by the US government.
I reject this document in its entirety,” Maduro told New York Judge Alvin Hellerstein in a hearing on Thursday. Similarly, Cilia Flores maintained her “absolute innocence” when asked to respond to the new charges, declaring: “I am completely innocent. I am not guilty.”
The judge entered formal not-guilty pleas on behalf of both defendants for all counts.
Maduro and Flores have been detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since being kidnapped by US special forces on January 3.
In the Manhattan federal court, US Attorney Jamie McDonald presented the superseding indictment that introduces a “conspiracy to commit torture” charge alongside the previous charges of “narco-terrorism” and drug trafficking conspiracy, as well as weapons possession.
The accusation claims Maduro personally oversaw purported torture of prisoners and held authority over whether detainees were released or prosecuted.
“Maduro, Flores, and other high-ranking members of their inner circle used a violent system of torture and repression to maintain their power,” McDonald stated to reporters outside the courthouse.
According to the legal filing, the prosecution alleges that Maduro and Flores oversaw a violent state “apparatus of repression” spanning from the former’s election in 2013.
The document claims methods like electric shocks, asphyxiation, and simulated drowning, among others, were allegedly deployed against political dissidents, state officials suspected of disloyalty, and US citizens detained inside Venezuela.
Defense attorneys have repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the entire prosecution, framing it as an unprecedented overreach of U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction. Maduro and Flores have consistently maintained that they are political prisoners and that their capture constituted a flagrant violation of Venezuelan sovereignty.
Legal counsel has filed pre-trial motions requesting the dismissal of the charges on grounds that Maduro and Flores, as a sitting president and legislator, respectively, possess sovereign immunity from foreign criminal prosecution.
Hellerstein recently rejected a request from Flores’ defense team that she be moved to house arrest due to severe health concerns, arguing that the first lady poses a “substantial flight risk.”
The updated indictment forced the judge to adjust the calendar of proceedings. The hearing on sovereign immunity arguments has been moved to January. The trial was pushed back two weeks and is now slated to commence on June 14, 2027, with a final pretrial conference scheduled for June 8.
In Venezuela, National Assembly Deputy Iris Varela blasted the new charges, arguing that Maduro and Flores remain victims of a forced kidnapping orchestrated by Washington.
“I wish to publicly express, once again, my absolute and total rejection of the despicable act that the U.S. government is brazenly carrying out against our president and our congresswoman,” Varela wrote on her X account.
She further described the latest charges as “a miserable ploy [and] a grotesque maneuver” and went on to label US President Donald Trump as a “pedophile pig.”
In contrast to Varela, the Venezuelan government has made no official statement regarding the latest developments in the legal case against Maduro and Flores.
Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Caracas.