NEW YORK — U.S.authorities charged former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with conspiring to torture his fellow citizens in order to maintain his hold on power.
The new indictment, unsealed Thursday, adds pressure on the ousted authoritarian leader already fighting drug trafficking offenses.Maduro, who was previously charged with participating in a conspiracy to send cocaine into the U.S., is now also facing allegations of human rights abuses during his reign as president of the oil-rich South American nation."He 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," says the revised indictment, which newly charges Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with torture conspiracy.The allegations include electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation at Maduro's behest.Asserting that thousands of Venezuelans were "harassed, threatened, arrested, prosecuted, assaulted, tortured, or killed" by people acting at the behest of the government that Maduro controlled, the indictment alleges that the abuse included electric shocks, beatings and asphyxiation.Maduro, the indictment claims, signed off on methods of torture and personally threatened the killing of one prisoner's child "as a form of psychological torture."A message seeking comment was sent to Maduro's lawyer; Flores was in court for a previously scheduled hearing, where her attorney said he hadn't yet had time to review the new allegations.
Both Maduro and Flores have been behind bars in New York since early January when forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid.Both have pleaded not guilty in the U.S.drug case first brought years ago against them and numerous alleged co-conspirators.
They had already been facing potential life prison sentences if convicted.Maduro has been under investigation for years by the International Criminal Court over a...