US prosecutors preparing charges against Maduro, Flores for torture of American citizens

Federal prosecutors in New York are preparing a new formal indictment against Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, centered on the alleged torture of U.S. citizens held in custody by their government, according to CNN.

The announcement of the new charges could take place this Thursday in New York courts. The expansion of the criminal case centers on the arbitrary detention of more than a dozen Americans who were held for years in Venezuelan prisons, where the U.S. government alleged that they were used as political bargaining chips.

Arbitrary detentions and testimonies of abuse

Investigations by the Department of Justice have documented the testimony of victims such as Matthew Heath, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and Osman Khan, both of whom were released in October 2022 during a prisoner exchange.

In previous lawsuits, the victims reported having been subjected to waterboarding, electric shocks, threats of sexual assault, forced administration of psychotropic drugs and prolonged periods of solitary confinement.

Similarly, members of the group known as the "CITGO 6" — U.S. oil executives arrested in Caracas in 2017 and held for nearly five years — reported physical punishment and cruel treatment. Executives such as Tomeu Vadell, Alirio José Zambrano and José Luis Zambrano confirmed that they had suffered systematic torture during their captivity at the hands of the state security apparatus.

The Americans were held at the headquarters of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM). This security agency was singled out in a United Nations report as "responsible for arbitrary detentions, ill-treatment, and torture against political opponents and their family members."

The U.N. document concluded that the DGCIM "systematically resorted" to methods such as "electric shocks, suffocation with plastic bags, simulated drowning, beatings, sexual violence, deprivation of water and food, forced postures, and exposure to extreme temperatures" with the goal of extracting confessions and intimidating prisoners.

Key hearing in federal court

Maduro and Flores have remained in federal custody without bail in New York since their capture in January during a U.S. military operation in Caracas. Both have pleaded not guilty to the initial charges of conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism.

The revelation of this new charge coincides with a court appearance scheduled for this Thursday in Manhattan, where Cilia Flores's defense team plans to ask the judge to grant her house arrest pending the start of the trial. Meanwhile, investigators have not ruled out including other high-ranking officials from the Venezuelan security apparatus in the case involving the torture of U.S. citizens.