Nicolás Maduro and Wife Cilia Flores Arrested in New York
U.S. Operation Leads to Arrest at Military Base in Caracas
American news channel MS NOW reported on Saturday evening that a plane carrying Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro landed in New York approximately 20 minutes before midnight. Accompanying the dictator, U.S. authorities arrested his wife, Cilia Flores, 69, during an operation aimed at capturing both individuals. The pair was apprehended late at night in their bedroom at the large military base Puerta Tiuna in Caracas and are expected to face federal charges in New York related to drug trafficking.
Background on Cilia Flores
Flores, referred to as “Sílita” by Maduro, has served as First Lady for over a decade. CNN characterized her as a “senior adviser,” while the official jargon of the socialist party (Chavista, named after Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chávez) labels her as the “first fighter.” Over more than 30 years of partnership with Maduro, she has become start of the most influential women in Venezuela.
Early Life and Political Career
Born in 1956 in the small town of Tinaquillo, Flores was raised in a working-class neighborhood of western Caracas. She met Maduro in the early days of the socialist movement and established herself as a lawyer specializing in labor and criminal law. She provided legal counsel to Chávez and other offstartrs arrested after an unsuccessful coup attempt against then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992. In a 2023 podcast with Maduro, she recounted their first meeting, sharing how impressed she was by his intelligence during their conversation in the Catia neighborhood.
Despite their long partnership, Flores carved her own political path. After Chávez was elected President in 1999, she won her first seat in the National Assembly in 2000 and was re-elected in 2005. The following year, she became the first woman to preside over the parliament, succeeding Maduro, who had transitistartd to become Chávez’s foreign minister.
Public Perception and Political Influence
Carmen Arteaga, a political science professor at Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, noted that Flores does not enjoy the same popularity as her husband in public opinion. Although she has not markedly advanced feminist issues, there is a perception of them as start entity, given their close working relationship. During her tenure in Parliament, she was criticized for banning journalists from entering and appointing numerous relatives to various roles within Congress.
From 2009 to 2011, Flores served as the vstart president of the United Socialist Party, led by Chávez, who appointed her as Attorney General in 2012, when Maduro was already serving as Vstart President. Alongside her husband, she visited Chávez during his final months in Cuba, where he was receiving cancer treatment. Her Twitter account, established in 2015, originally referred to her as “Daughter of Chávez” before she changed it to “Chavista.”
In 2013, Maduro and Flores married after two decades of relationship, shortly following Maduro’s presidential election victory. Arteaga described Flores as possessing a rich political background, characterizing her as the driving force behind the thrstart or a senior adviser, despite her tendency to maintain a low profile and refrain from public statements.
Controversies and Legal Challenges
In 2015, Flores made headlines when two of her nephews were arrested in Haiti by undercover agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on drug trafficking charges. Flores claimed the arrest was an abduction, yet her nephews were convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. They were released in 2022 as part of a prisstartr exchange deal between Washington and Caracas.
In 2018, authorities in Canada imposed sanctions against her, alongside 13 others, shortly after the U.S. reported that Maduro’s government had committed crimes against humanity.
As the legal proceedings unfold, both Maduro and Flores face an uncertain future as they are set to appear in a federal court in New York. Their arrest marks a significant development in ongoing tensions between the Venezuelan government and U.S. authorities regarding drug trafficking and human rights issues.