NEW YORK – As María Corina Machado returned to Venezuela on Sunday, a new American indictment laid out how prosecutors say Nicolás Maduro subverted democracy: torture, bribery and coercion at home, and a transnational narcoterrorism conspiracy that bound Mexican cartels and Colombian guerrillas to Venezuela’s corrupted military, courts and police.
According to the superseding indictment, political opponents were tortured, judges were promised monthly bonuses, relatives were brutalized when a judge resisted orders to exclude opposition candidates, and soldiers were deployed undercover alongside armed civilian groups to conceal the government’s responsibility for violence.
The indictment directly addresses the election that blocked Machado’s movement from office.
Prosecutors describe Maduro declaring victory after a “sham” presidential contest in July 2024, followed by further atrocities during the ensuing political unrest. Machado had been barred from running and backed Edmundo González Urrutia, whom voting records examined by the Carter Center showed had overwhelmingly defeated Maduro.
Unsealed in Manhattan federal court on October 8, the indictment alleges that Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, maintained a system in which narco enrichment and political repression reinforced each other.
Officials profited from protected cocaine shipments and government contracts. Those threatening the arrangement faced imprisonment, dispossession or torture. Both defendants have pleaded not guilty.
The alleged system extended beyond Venezuela: cocaine moved through Caribbean and Central American transshipment points toward the United States, weapons were supplied to Colombian guerrillas, and a military officer targeted by Maduro was allegedly taken across the Colombian border to be held by Venezuelan counterintelligence personnel and guerrilla fighters.
One allegation also extends beyond Maduro’s removal.
