Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of New York are preparing new charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores for the alleged torture of American citizens detained in Venezuelan prisons during his administration, according to an exclusive investigation by CNN published this Wednesday.
The formal announcement could take place this Thursday, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation, the television network explained.
The new charges would add to the already existing ones for narcoterrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation, and weapon-related offenses, for which both have pleaded not guilty and have been held without bail in New York since their arrest in January.
The new accusations are related to the allegedly illegal detention and mistreatment experienced by more than a dozen American citizens in Venezuelan prisons while Maduro led the Chavista regime. Investigators are also considering charging other individuals for their alleged involvement in the abuses.
Among the most documented cases are that of the former marine Matthew Heath and Osman Khan, who were released in a prisoner exchange in October 2022 after spending 752 and 259 days in confinement, respectively.
In a civil lawsuit filed in January 2025, both alleged that they were subjected to simulated drowning, electric shocks, threats of sexual assault, administration of psychoactive drugs, and solitary confinement in a cell known as "El Tigrito."
There are also the cases of the so-called "CITGO 6," six oil executives with U.S. ties who were lured to Caracas with a business bait in November 2017 and detained for nearly five years. Three of them — Tomeu Vadell, Alirio José Zambrano, and José Luis Zambrano — alleged physical and psychological torture in lawsuits filed against their employer, Citgo.
All detainees were held at facilities of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM), an agency that a United Nations report described as responsible for "arbitrary detentions, mistreatment, and torture of political opponents and their families."
According to that same report, the DGCIM frequently resorted to electric shocks, suffocation with plastic bags, simulated drowning, beatings, sexual violence, deprivation of water and food, forced positions, and exposure to extreme temperatures to "obtain information and confessions, intimidate, and punish detainees."
This Thursday, a hearing is also scheduled in which Flores' attorney will request that she be placed under house arrest before the trial, citing heart problems. The Prosecutor's Office formally opposed this request at the end of September, describing Flores as having an "extreme flight risk."
In procedural terms, Maduro's defense challenges the legality of his capture and argues that the former president enjoys immunity as a former head of state due to acts committed during his term in office.
However, according to the Prosecutor's Office, the current Venezuelan government has not claimed immunity on behalf of Maduro.
At the beginning of October, a key prosecutor in the case resigned and requested to be removed from the file, in a move that raised questions about the progress of the process.
The trial against Maduro and Flores is set for June 1, 2027, and Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has scheduled a hearing on the defense motions for November 17, 2026.
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