Former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and wife face U.S. torture charges in Manhattan

Nicolás Maduro, who led Venezuela from 2013 until his capture in January, and his wife Cilia Flores are set to return to a Manhattan federal courtroom to confront a rewritten indictment that accuses them of orchestrating a government-sanctioned torture system. Prosecutors allege the duo directed methods such as beatings, suffocation and electric shocks, with Maduro allegedly recommending techniques and receiving updates on individual prisoners, even threatening a detainee’s child.

Flores, a former attorney general, is accused of helping design the repressive apparatus and ordering torture of particular individuals. The case builds on earlier drug-trafficking charges in which the pair pleaded not guilty and claimed foreign-official immunity. The new allegations cover alleged abuses dating from Maduro’s accession after Hugo Chávez’s death in 2013 and include three American victims. Their attorneys maintain they will deny all accusations in court.