Maduro and Wife Plead Not Guilty to Torture Conspiracy Charges in New York Court

Since U.S. forces seized Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores from their Caracas home in January, the case has grown from drug and weapons counts to a torture conspiracy indictment unsealed last week. On Thursday, Oct. 15, both defendants pleaded not guilty to it in Manhattan federal court.

Maduro did not make it easy. Asked by Judge Alvin Hellerstein to enter a plea, he twice answered by attacking the indictment instead. Speaking Spanish through an interpreter, he said, "I reject this document entirely," and called the allegations "false accusations and false testimony." Hellerstein cut in and entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.

Flores was brief. "I am completely innocent. I am not guilty," she said through an interpreter.

Both wore beige jail uniforms. Maduro was shackled at the ankles. Both appeared to have lost weight in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

What the indictment alleges

Maduro is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit torture. Flores faces one count of conspiracy to commit torture and one count of narcoterrorism, on top of the cocaine importation and weapons counts already pending.

Prosecutors allege that after Maduro became president in 2013, he authorized torture against specific people and oversaw a system that used torture, military detention and violence against political opponents. The indictment lists electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells and psychological torture. It says victims included Americans.

It also describes specific conduct attributed to Maduro. In 2014, he allegedly told enforcers to "squeeze them harder" to extract information from detained military personnel. He is also accused of suggesting sleep deprivation and pouring water on detainees, and of threatening to kill one prisoner's child. Flores is accused of helping develop the system and ordering the torture of certain individuals.

Prosecutors have not accused either defendant of personally carrying out torture. The theory is conspiracy and authorization.

U.S. Attorney Jamie McDonald said last week that the couple spent more than two decades engaged in a conspiracy to commit torture, including of U.S. citizens, alongside the narcotics and weapons offenses already charged.

The defense

Maduro's lawyer, Barry Pollack, said when the charges were announced that his client denies them and "looks forward to his day in court." Maduro has called the U.S. case a tool for "imperial" designs on Venezuela's oil reserves. In his January appearance he said he had been "kidnapped" and remained "president of my country."

The central legal fight is immunity. Defense lawyers argue Maduro was a sitting head of state and Flores the first lady, so a U.S. court has no jurisdiction, and that seizing him by force was illegal. Flores filed a separate immunity motion.

Prosecutors reject that. In a court filing they wrote that the defendants are "former rogue officials of a formerly rogue state with no entitlement to immunity." They noted the U.S. has not recognized Maduro as Venezuela's head of state since January 2019. They also said Venezuela has not asserted immunity on the couple's behalf, and that sovereign immunity is "a matter of grace and comity" rather than a constitutional restriction.

Maduro is separately challenging the narco-terrorism conspiracy count, arguing prosecutors have not met the elements of the charge.

Flores' custody and the trial date

Last week Hellerstein denied Flores' request for home confinement, with leave to renew it if medical need arises. He found she presents a serious flight risk and a danger to the community, citing clear and convincing evidence. He noted the charges carry a 50-year mandatory minimum and a maximum of life, and that her only tie to the district is her jailed husband.

Her lawyers cited mitral valve prolapse, a history of rheumatic valve disease and asthma. They said she has lost more than 25 pounds and two molars in custody. Doctors recommended cardiac catheterization after an April 23 stress test, and it has not been performed. Hellerstein wrote that he does not doubt the seriousness of her health concerns, but found no current medical need that would warrant release.

The trial is scheduled for June 2027. At Thursday's hearing, prosecutors told the judge both sides want it moved from June 1 to June 14.

A rare kind of case

Torture can be prosecuted in the U.S. regardless of where it occurred or the victims' nationality. But prosecutions of foreign officials on those grounds are exceedingly rare. Previous cases include the son of former Liberian president Charles Taylor, Russians accused of war crimes in Ukraine and a former prison warden in Bashar Assad's Syria.

Maduro has also been under investigation for years by the International Criminal Court over alleged crimes against humanity tied to his crackdown on opponents. He has always denied wrongdoing.

Hellerstein has not yet ruled on the immunity motions. That ruling will decide whether the torture and drug counts go to a jury in June 2027.