The defense of Cilia Flores submitted a formal request for house arrest on Wednesday to federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in New York, arguing that the health of their client has significantly deteriorated since her admission to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where she has been held since January 3.
According to CNN, lawyers Mark E. Donnelly and Andrés Sánchez built their request on three pillars: a preexisting heart condition that worsened while in prison, documented overall physical deterioration, and arguments for international immunity.
The heart of the argument: heart health
Before his capture, Flores suffered from a prolapse of the mitral valve and was receiving monthly treatment with injections that he has been unable to continue in the prison. Instead, the prison medical team prescribed him children's aspirin, a statin, diltiazem, and nitroglycerin to manage episodes of chest pain.
The most critical point of the document is an episode that occurred on July 29: Flores experienced intense pressure in his chest that lasted for thirty minutes, and external medical consultants do not rule out that it may have been a mild heart attack, although there is no official medical confirmation regarding this.
"Without conducting an additional echocardiogram to compare cardiac function with his previous tests, it is unclear the extent of the coronary damage he may have suffered," the lawyers warned in the court document.
The doctors also recommended performing a cardiac catheterization, which could lead to more invasive additional procedures. The defense argues that a federal prison does not provide the necessary conditions for recovery from such an intervention.
Documented physical deterioration
Beyond the heart, the writing details a picture of widespread deterioration: Flores has lost more than 11 kilograms since January, lost two molars, suffers from persistent reflux and gastritis, occasional tachycardia, difficulty breathing, and dizziness. She barely sleeps three or four hours a day, sharing space with more than forty inmates.
The defense also revealed that during the first three months of her detention, Flores was kept in solitary confinement, a period during which she "was unable to effectively communicate with anyone except her lawyers."
The alternative proposal and the argument of immunity
As a solution, the attorneys propose to move her to a private residence within the Manhattan judicial district under armed guard 24 hours a day, GPS monitoring, restricted visits, intercepted phone calls, and unannounced inspections. Flores also offered to cover the costs of the transfer and to surrender her passport.
The statement also includes arguments for international immunity, in line with the strategy adopted by Maduro's defense, which days earlier requested Judge Hellerstein to dismiss the charges entirely, citing sovereign immunity.
The U.S. government opposed the request for house arrest. The federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan has not yet submitted a formal written response, and the judge has also not ruled on the request.
In parallel, Judge Hellerstein ordered to keep the medical history of Flores, submitted as support for the request, sealed, stating that "the courts in this circuit regularly permit the submission of medical histories under seal."
Flores, 69 years old, and Maduro, 63, face charges of drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption, and conspiracy to import cocaine into U.S. territory, to which both have pleaded not guilty. A hearing to discuss the motions to dismiss is scheduled for November 17, while the start of the trial has been set for June 1, 2027.
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