Justice · Friday, October 9, 2026
Maduro and his wife charged with conspiring to torture prisoners, including Americans
The File desk · Oct 9, 2026, 10:55 AM UTC
Status
Confirmed as a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. The charges are accusations. Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores are presumed innocent.
- Confirmed
The Justice Department says a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday charges Maduro and Flores with
, on top of narcoterrorism, cocaine-importation, and weapons counts.Legal instrument
Conspiracy to commit torture
A federal crime to agree with others to torture people. The Justice Department says the Maduro count carries up to 20 years. The release gives the penalty, not the legal elements, and cites no statute section.
- Confirmed
An indictment is an allegation. Both are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan added torture to the case against Nicolás Maduro, the former president of Venezuela, and his wife, Cilia Flores. A new indictment unsealed Thursday says that for more than two decades the couple sat atop a system that jailed and tortured opponents. The Justice Department says the methods included electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, starvation, and threats against victims' families. Some of the victims were U.S. citizens. The couple already faced drug, narcoterrorism, and weapons charges. The charges are accusations. Both are presumed innocent.
The Justice Department said former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros, 63, and former first lady Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, 69, were charged in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday. Count Two is Legal instrument A federal crime to agree with others to torture people. The Justice Department says the Maduro count carries up to 20 years. The release gives the penalty, not the legal elements, and cites no statute section.Conspiracy to commit torture
The other counts, as the department lists them: a Legal instrument A federal crime, as the Justice Department describes the Maduro count, to agree to traffic drugs in a way that helps a terrorist group. The department says it carries 20 years to life. The release cites no statute section.Narcoterrorism conspiracy
The department says the torture included electric shock, asphyxiation, rape, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and psychological torture, such as threats to harm and kill victims' families. It says one U.S. citizen was denied food and water and subjected to simulated drowning, repeated beatings, electric shock, and forced injections. Three unnamed alleged co-conspirators appear as CC-1, CC-2, and CC-3. The department says CC-1 ordered murders and threatened to kill a prisoner's child, that CC-2 developed torture methods he presented to Maduro for approval, and that CC-3 took part in torturing U.S. citizens. Those are allegations.
The indictment, as the department describes it, also names partnerships with the FARC and the ELN in Colombia, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Zetas, later known as the Cártel del Noreste, Tren de Aragua, and state-backed gangs called colectivos. Prosecutors are the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and the Justice Department's National Security Division.
FBI Director Kash Patel said a January operation returned Maduro and his wife to the United States. That date is his account. The release does not give a day in January. This site had not covered the earlier charges.
What is still unknown or disputed
- The arraignment date on the new charges, the judge, and any pleas.
- The indictment PDF. It was not opened.
- How many U.S. victims.
- The custody date in January, beyond Patel's account.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
Nicolás Maduro Moros and Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro Charged with Torture
U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs · October 8, 2026
The Justice Department announced that former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro Moros and former First Lady of Venezuela Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro have been charged in a Superseding Indictment unsealed today with conspiring to commit torture, narcoterrorism, cocaine importation conspiracy, and weapons offenses.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/nicolas-maduro-moros-and-cilia-adela-flores-de-maduro-charged-torture
Source 2
Justice Department press-release feed
U.S. Department of Justice · October 8, 2026
Item dated Thu, 08 Oct 2026, for the Maduro and Flores torture charges.
https://www.justice.gov/news/rss?type=press_release&m=1