US judge denies Cilia Flores bail ahead of narcoterrorism trial

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein on Thursday denied Cilia Flores’s bid for bail, ruling that the wife of deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro must remain in custody while she awaits trial. Flores, 69, appeared in Manhattan federal court shackled and wearing black jail garb, sitting alongside her lawyers, the Wall Street Journal reported (source).

Lawyers for Flores argued that health concerns with her heart meant she should await trial under home detention with 24-hour armed surveillance. Prosecutors opposed the bid, arguing she was a flight risk with no ties to the United States.

Hellerstein said he took Flores’s assurances that she would not flee with “many grains of salt,” noting the narcoterrorism allegations against her contradicted her claims of respecting the law. “With all the money that’s involved and all the contacts Ms. Flores has with the Venezuelan government and the people in it, the risk is serious,” he said, according to CNN (source).

The ruling came on the same day prosecutors unsealed a superseding indictment charging Maduro, 63, and Flores with conspiracy to commit torture, alleging methods including electric shocks, starvation and threats to harm victims’ families. Hellerstein said the pair would be arraigned on the new charges in the coming weeks.

Both have pleaded not guilty to narcoterrorism charges. They were seized by U.S. special forces during a military operation in Caracas earlier this year and are held at a federal jail in Brooklyn, with their trial scheduled for June.