Detained in New York while awaiting trial on US drug trafficking charges, Cilia Flores — the wife of Venezuela’s deposed leader Nicolas Maduro — is asking a federal judge to move her from jail to house arrest, saying she now suffers from serious heart problems.
In a filing cited by her lawyer, Mark Donnelly, Flores had been healthy before her capture by US forces in January. “Before her capture by US forces in January, Cilia Flores “was in good health and was not taking any long-term medication, with the exception of a monthly injection,” her attorney Mark Donnelly stated in a document.
But as she and her husband remain held in a federal jail in Brooklyn pending trial, her defence team says the 69-year-old’s condition has deteriorated. They argue she is dealing with significant cardiac issues that may require a coronary angiogram — and possibly surgery.
Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were seized by the United States during a raid in Caracas
Donnelly’s request contends that the conditions of Flores’s detention make it difficult for her to receive appropriate medical care, and he is seeking permission for her to be released to house arrest in the United States under tight restrictions.
The proposed terms would include round-the-clock armed surveillance, an electronic ankle bracelet monitor and the confiscation of her passport.
Maduro, 63, described in the filing as authoritarian, and Flores were seized by the United States during a raid in Caracas and have been detained since 3 January.
US prosecutors accuse the pair of helping smuggle tons of cocaine into the United States.
Both deny the allegations. Maduro, meanwhile, has told a court he is a “prisoner of war” of the United States.
