US adds torture charges against Maduro

NEW YORK (AP):

US authorities added new torture charges yesterday to their case against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, ramping up pressure on the ousted authoritarian leader already fighting drug trafficking allegations.

Maduro and wife Cilia Flores, already charged with participating in a conspiracy to send cocaine into the US, now also face allegations of human rights abuses during his time as president of the oil-rich South American nation.

The updated indictment “alleges conduct that is truly unthinkable”, New York-based US Attorney Jamie McDonald said outside the courthouse where the case is being handled. He said thousands of Venezuelans, and some Americans, were tortured to ensure that Maduro and Flores held on to power.

“This is the epitome of corruption,” McDonald said.

The allegations include electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation, at Maduro’s behest. Maduro, the indictment claims, signed off on torture methods, sought and got updates on specific victims’ treatment, watched a video of a forced confession, and personally threatened the killing of one prisoner’s child “as a form of psychological torture”.

Flores, a former legislator and attorney general, helped develop the repressive system and ordered the torture of some specific people, the indictment contends.

A message seeking comment was sent to Maduro’s lawyer. Flores’ attorney said he hadn’t yet had time to review the new allegations.

The couple pleaded not guilty in the US drug case first brought years ago against them and numerous alleged co-conspirators. Their attorneys have asked for the case to be dismissed on the grounds that they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country.

They face potential sentences of life in prison if convicted.

Maduro, who served as Venezuela’s president from 2013 until his capture in January, has been under investigation for years by the International Criminal Court over allegations of crimes against humanity, tied to his crackdown on opponents. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

Both Maduro and Flores have been behind bars in New York since early January, when forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid. Flores’ lawyers unsuccessfully asked a judge to release her on house arrest.

Outside the courthouse, over a dozen demonstrators chanted slogans and held signs supporting her request.

The revised indictment includes several mentions of the involvement of Venezuela’s feared DGCIM military intelligence agency, which was headed for many years by one of Maduro’s co-defendants, General Hugo Carvajal. He broke with Maduro years ago, pleaded guilty last year to drug trafficking charges in New York, and has offered to testify against his former boss.

While the indictment doesn’t name the alleged torture victims, three are described as US citizens. One was punched, subjected to electric shocks, and forced to eat his own vomit during eight months of imprisonment, the indictment says. Another was beaten badly enough to necessitate a long hospital stay and had a gun stuck in his mouth. A third was handcuffed, hooded and beaten for two days every half an hour, suffering a permanent eye injury, the indictment said.

Maduro has long ignored lawsuits brought in US courts by Americans who alleged they were beaten while in custody in Venezuela.

Among those who sued is Matthew Heath, a former US Marine corporal from Tennessee. He was arrested at a roadblock in Venezuela in 2020 and held in custody for more than two years.

In May, Heath and another former prisoner won a US$300 million default judgment against Maduro and other top Venezuelan officials for overseeing a pattern of torture. The lawsuit, brought under a federal anti-terrorism law, included allegations of waterboarding, electrocution, threats of rape with a nightstick, administration of mind-altering medications and the repeated use of a cramped cell nicknamed “El Tigrito”.

“It’s incredible to see a dictator in court,” Heath said upon learning of the new charges. “The Maduro prosecution will do more to prevent the kidnapping of Americans by rogue regimes than a hundred press releases from the United Nations.”

Medical problems

Meanwhile, Flores’ lawyers argued that Flores, 69, has medical problems that cannot be treated effectively in jail. She has lost 25 pounds while imprisoned at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, might have suffered a minor heart attack in July, has “lingering lightheadedness, dizziness and shortness of breath”, and has been told that she might need heart surgery, the attorneys said.

They also said she suffered permanent scarring when she was “thrown against a wall or dresser” during her capture.

Prosecutors opposed the bail request, saying that Flores was an “extreme” flight risk and has been taken for treatment at a local hospital when needed.

US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied Flores’ request. He noted, among other things, that she’s unwilling to undergo catheterisation in jail, in order to determine the cause of her heart problems and the appropriate steps for treatment.

He also pushed back at the notion that her high blood pressure was life-threatening, noting she’s already on medication for that.

US President Donald Trump’s administration has defended the raid to capture Maduro as a “surgical law enforcement operation”. Maduro has called himself a prisoner of war and his capture a kidnapping.