Nicolás Maduro, the deposed Venezuelan president, and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been indicted on allegations of conspiracy to commit torture, according to Manhattan federal court papers unsealed on Thursday.
The superseding indictment was made public shortly before Flores appeared in court to press for pretrial release – a request Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied. Both Maduro and Flores have been held in New York City since early January.
The pair were seized by US special forces during a predawn raid on Caracas and taken to New York to answer “narcoterrorism”-related charges, an operation that drew widespread international condemnation. Charging documents at the time alleged that Maduro led a “corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking”.
Both defendants have previously entered not guilty pleas in the criminal case. CNN first reported on Wednesday that a fresh indictment was anticipated.
The newly released charging document describes how Maduro and Flores allegedly deployed a campaign of brutality to crush opposition and hold on to power.
According to the document, Maduro, Flores and other Venezuelan leaders “presided over a system of repression that relied on violence against political opposition, arbitrary detention, and the torture of detainees, including United States citizens”.
The superseding indictment alleges that Maduro and Flores “sat atop that violent power structure” and “developed and facilitated the systems which they and their co-conspirators used corruptly to amass immense wealth and power, rewarding allies with ill-gotten funds and terrorizing perceived opponents through persecution and violence”.
Authorities claim Flores was central to the operation, stating that she “helped develop this system of repression and ordered that individuals be tortured to protect her family members’ illegal activities”.
Those tortured, the papers say, included US citizens “who were believed to pose a threat” to Maduro’s grip on power.
“One particular United States citizen was detained in Venezuela and subjected to, among other things, deprivation of food and water, simulated drowning, repeated beatings, electric shock to his testicles, and forced injections.”
Maduro and Flores also allegedly leaned on Venezuela’s judiciary to hand down rulings that furthered their efforts to sideline opponents. When one official pushed back, Venezuelan intelligence agents arrested and tortured members of that person’s family, according to the charging papers.
“For example, one family member … was forced to drink latrine water; assaulted with tear gas in Victim-1’s cell; threatened that Victim-1 would be killed at gunpoint; and placed in a cold room known as the ‘Freezer’ in which a bright light was left on at all times of day and night and music was blared on repeat,” the superseding indictment states.
That official “ultimately … relented and blocked the opposition figures from running for political office”.
In a separate alleged torture episode, authorities abused a friend of a suspected opponent by “asphyxiating him with a bag, applying electric shocks to his testicles and knees, and kicking and beating him with a blunt object”, the court papers say.
One torture victim, interrogated repeatedly, faced numerous threats “including that his daughter would be kidnapped and raped if he did not confess and name his supposed confederates”, the papers state. “On one occasion, interrogators produced women’s underwear, claiming it belonged to his daughter.”
Soon after the indictment came to light, Flores’s lawyers argued for her release during an already scheduled hearing, proposing house arrest with round-the-clock private security. They cited chronic health problems, including cardiac conditions.
Hellerstein challenged that argument, pointing out that Flores had declined catheterization while detained in the general population.
“I’ve undergone it, so I know what it is,” Hellerstein said, noting it was generally an outpatient procedure. “There’s no pain. There’s no general anesthesia.”
Flores’s attorney then raised her high blood pressure. “It’s controllable by pills,” Hellerstein replied.
Her team also told the court that Flores had shed more than 25lbs and lost two teeth since being taken into custody.
“For whatever it’s worth, her appearance today is no worse than, and perhaps a little better, than when I first met with her [at] her arraignment,” Hellerstein said. Flores’s lawyer said that at her arraignment she was “still bandaged up” following her rough arrest.
Flores wore dark jail scrubs in court, listening to proceedings through headphones via a Spanish-language interpreter.
The US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, which is prosecuting the case, opposed the now-rejected bail application. Prosecutors argued Flores posed a flight risk and maintained she had received suitable medical care.
Donald Trump has defended the contentious raid on Maduro, describing it as a “surgical law enforcement operation”. At his first US court appearance, Maduro said: “I’m a kidnapped president – a prisoner of war!”
Following Maduro’s forced removal, Trump moved quickly to secure access to Venezuela’s vast oil reserves. In August, Trump announced a new oil agreement with Venezuela, claiming the US would hold “majority” control over 65bn barrels of proven reserves.
Venezuela holds approximately 303bn barrels of proven oil reserves, the largest total in the world. The White House has sought to establish a steady flow of Venezuelan crude to US refineries while increasing US investment in the country’s struggling petroleum sector.
Trump has come under mounting pressure over soaring gas prices ahead of November’s midterm elections. Wider access to cheaper oil and increased output could help bring costs down.
A Guardian investigation found, however, that Trump’s proclaimed “biggest oil deal in world history” is likely to fail because of legal and logistical difficulties.
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