New York prosecutors are expected to bring new charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores for the alleged torture of Americans detained by the Venezuelan government in recent years, according to several people familiar with the investigation.
An announcement could come as early as Thursday, the sources said.
The new charges relate to what the U.S. government said was the illegal detention of more than a dozen American citizens in Venezuelan prisons during the time Maduro led a repressive regime in Venezuela, the sources briefed on the investigation said.
Investigators also considered charging several additional people for their alleged role in the torture of Americans, according to a source familiar with the matter.
CNN has contacted lawyers for Maduro and Flores.
Maduro and his wife were captured in a US military raid in January from the presidential palace in Caracas. They have pleaded not guilty to narcoterrorism conspiracy and other charges and are being held without bail in New York.
Flores is expected to appear at a hearing Thursday where her lawyer will request that she be placed under house arrest before her trial.
Maduro’s lawyer disputes the legality of the arrest and argues that the former president should be granted immunity since the alleged conduct occurred while he was in office.
The Venezuelan government does not support the claim of immunity in its favor, according to the prosecution.
More than a dozen Americans have been arrested by the Maduro government, accused by the U.S. government and its supporters of using them as political pawns.
Several Americans denounced the torture they allegedly suffered during their detention. Matthew Heath and Osman Khan, who were released in a prisoner exchange in October 2022, alleged in a lawsuit that they were victims of simulated drowning, electrocution, threats of sexual assault, use of psychotropic drugs and periods of solitary confinement. Heath, a U.S. Navy veteran, attempted suicide while in custody.
The “CITGO 6,” a group of six U.S. oil executives lured to Venezuela in 2017 and detained for nearly five years, also claim they were subjected to brutal conditions while detained in Venezuela. In lawsuits filed against their employer, Citgo, Tomeu Vadell, Alirio José Zambrano and José Luis Zambrano said they were tortured while in detention.
All were detained within the notorious Directorate General of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) – which was “responsible for arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and torture of political opponents and their relatives,” according to a United Nations report.
This report revealed that the DGCIM “regularly resorted” to torture practices “including electric shocks, suffocation with plastic bags, simulated drowning, beatings, sexual violence, deprivation of water and food, stress positions and exposure to extreme temperatures” in order to “extort information and confessions, intimidate and punish detainees”.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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