Nicolas Maduro pleads not guilty to US torture charges

Ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty Thursday in a New York court to new US torture charges.

Prosecutors alleged the pair conspired to commit acts including waterboardings, rapes and beatings against victims, including American citizens, in Venezuelan detention.

Maduro, 63, called the latest charges “false accusations” during a 35-minute hearing. Asked by the judge how he pleaded to the indictment, he said: “I reject this document in its entirety.”

Flores, wearing the same brown prison jumpsuit as Maduro, said: “I am completely innocent, I am not guilty.”

According to prosecutors, Maduro and Flores used torture to “intimidate, harass, and neutralize their opponents, including through kidnappings.” A charging document alleges that Maduro “presided over” a system of repression and torture and that Flores helped him develop it.

In one 2022 case, Venezuelan authorities allegedly tortured an American they accused of plotting to assassinate Maduro. A court filing says the alleged torture included electric shocks to the arms, legs and genitals, asphyxiation, beatings, deprivation of food and water, and forced injections of a substance that caused seizures.

Maduro and Flores are in US custody after their capture in January. They already face US drug trafficking and firearms charges, with a New York trial scheduled for next June. US prosecutors allege that Maduro used state power to protect and promote illegal drug smuggling and allied himself with cartels to ship tons of cocaine into the United States.

The pair have asked for the charges against them to be dismissed, claiming immunity as president and first lady of a sovereign country.

Since Maduro's capture, vice president Delcy Rodriguez has governed Venezuela as interim leader under pressure from US President Donald Trump's administration. The supplied material says she has advanced reforms to open Venezuela's oil sector to international investment and signed a deal providing US control over a large portion of the country's reserves.

Also this month, a US judge denied Flores's request to move from jail to private home detention in New York to help address health problems. Her son-in-law earlier told AFP that Flores was suffering from a “prolapsed” heart, a condition that, in rare and severe cases, can cause heart failure.