Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, appeared before U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York on Thursday, October 8, seeking release on bail or a transfer to house arrest. Her lawyers argue that her declining health no longer justifies her continued detention.
Flores has been held at a federal prison in Brooklyn. According to her attorneys, she currently takes four different medications and suffers from heart problems serious enough that doctors have recommended a cardiac catheterization—a procedure in which a thin tube is threaded through blood vessels to examine or treat the heart. Despite the recommendation, Flores has so far delayed undergoing the invasive test.
Prosecutors, however, are pushing back against her request. They told the court that acts of torture linked to Flores caused what they described as “generational damage” to Venezuela, suggesting the harm from her alleged actions extends far beyond any individual case and has had lasting effects on the country as a whole.
The judge’s decision on whether to grant bail or modify her custody conditions was still pending as the hearing concluded. The case adds to the broader legal and political scrutiny surrounding Maduro’s inner circle amid ongoing tensions between Washington and Caracas.
For more details on the hearing and the arguments presented, read the full original report at eltiempo.com.
Source: Juicio de Cilia Flores, esposa de Nicolás Maduro: Fiscalía dice que torturas atribuidas causaron daño a Venezuela (eltiempo.com).
Image: denisbin, BY-ND 2.0 (via Openverse).