Prosecutors accused former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Thursday of orchestrating the torture of people held in his regime's custody, piling onto the narcoterrorism charges they already face.
The big picture: The charges add new fuel to the historic prosecution seeking to hold the strongman-turned-prisoner accountable for alleged crimes against Americans and alleged abuse of power.
- Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, pleaded not guilty in January to drug- and weapon-related charges. They have been held in the U.S. since Maduro's stunning capture from Caracas earlier this year.
Driving the news: Maduro "authorized the use of torture against specific individuals and oversaw a system designed to use torture, arbitrary detention, and violence as a means of repression against the political opposition," a superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of New York alleged.
- The indictment outlines a series of disturbing torture tactics — including electrocution, beatings, isolation and simulated drowning — allegedly employed at Maduro's direction to quell political opposition.
- "As opposition to the ruling regime intensified," Maduro allegedly "continued to oversee the development of a more systematic approach to unlawfully arresting and torturing dissidents," per the indictment, ordering who would be arrested and tortured.
- One unnamed victim who the indictment described as "friendly" with "a famous opponent of the regime" was told by his captors that they would kill his young child, whose hair color they referenced.
- It also details abuse against Americans, including one who was allegedly falsely accused of participating in a conspiracy to kill Maduro. That victim was allegedly tortured with electric shocks, asphyxiation and forced injection of a substance that made him have seizures.
Catch up quick: Americans who were formerly imprisoned in Venezuela have accused Maduro of heading a web of corruption that used Americans as negotiating tools.
- In a lawsuit filed last year, Matthew Heath and Osman Khan, two Americans freed in a 2022 prisoner swap, alleged they were subjected to electrocution, suffocation, severe beatings and food and water deprivation, among other threats and forms of torture.
- Members of a group of oil executives, known as the CITGO-6, also released in October 2022, alleged they faced physical and emotional torture while in Venezuelan custody.
Editor's note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated.