The Southern District of New York Prosecutor's Office presented a formal memorandum this Thursday opposing the transfer of Cilia Flores, the former First Lady of Venezuela and wife of Nicolás Maduro, to house arrest, describing her as a «extreme flight risk» and «danger to the community».
Flores has been detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since January 3, 2026, when she was arrested alongside Maduro during a U.S. forces operation in Caracas and transferred to New York to face federal charges.
The central argument of the prosecutors is compelling. According to a report by CNN, Flores faces a minimum sentence of 40 years if found guilty, which, combined with her age of 69 years, would effectively mean spending the rest of her life behind bars.
According to the memorandum, this perspective "would provide a significant incentive for anyone to flee from justice", and it is particularly strong given their profile.
The prosecutors also warned that, if released, Flores would not only pose a flight risk but also an active danger, as he "could attempt to directly intimidate witnesses and victims" in Venezuela.
The document also notes that both defendants “resorted to extreme violence to promote their drug trafficking and corruption, ordering kidnappings, beatings, and murders.”
Flores and Maduro face conspiracy charges for narcoterrorism, cocaine importation, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess weapons of war. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The request for house arrest had been submitted in mid-September by Flores' attorneys to Federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, following the failure of previous negotiations with the prosecutor's office.
The defense argued that the health of their client has seriously deteriorated: she has lost over 11 kilograms, experienced an episode of intense chest pressure in July which external medical consultants do not rule out could have been a mild heart attack, and sleeps only three to four hours a day sharing space with more than 40 inmates.
As an alternative, the lawyers proposed moving her to a private residence in Manhattan with 24-hour armed surveillance, GPS monitoring, restricted visits, and intercepted phone calls, with all costs to be borne by Flores herself.
The prosecutors rejected that medical proposal as unfounded, stating that the cardiac catheterization mentioned by the defense "has been proposed solely as a condition for his release."
Judge Hellerstein ordered to seal Flores' medical records in mid-September, after finding that the house arrest request included unprotected medical records.
Now the defense has until September 30 to respond to the prosecutor's memorandum, and Judge Hellerstein has scheduled a final hearing on the request for October 8.
The process is currently in the pre-trial phase, which is scheduled to begin on June 1, 2027, with an additional hearing set for November 17 regarding the motions to dismiss based on sovereign immunity filed by the defenses of both defendants.
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