Archive · 8 Oct 2026
Cilia Flores Seeks Release from US Jail on Medical Grounds
Cilia Flores is being held in a jail in New York.
Her lawyers want her to leave jail and stay at a home with guards because they say she has serious health problems.
Prosecutors say she should remain in jail because they believe she could flee and might be a danger to the public.
Flores and her husband, Nicolas Maduro, deny the charges against them.
The case accuses them of joining a plan to bring cocaine into the United States.
They were taken from their home in Caracas in January.
Flores’s lawyers also say she was injured during the raid.
The court will consider whether she can be released while her case continues.
Cilia Flores is scheduled to appear in a New York court, where her lawyers will seek her release to house arrest.
Her lawyers cite heart problems, weight loss, dizziness and shortness of breath, and say she may need heart surgery.
Prosecutors oppose release, arguing Flores poses an extreme flight risk and danger to the public.
Flores and her husband, former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, have pleaded not guilty to a cocaine-importation conspiracy charge.
The couple have been jailed in New York since US forces seized them from their Caracas home in January.
- Who
- Cilia Flores, wife of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro; her lawyers and US prosecutors.
- What
- Flores's lawyers are asking a judge to release her from jail to house arrest because of reported health problems; prosecutors oppose the request.
- When
- She was set to appear in court Thursday; she and Maduro have been jailed since early January.
- Where
- A court in New York; Flores is held at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn.
- Why
- Her lawyers say her medical problems cannot be treated effectively in jail, while prosecutors cite flight risk and public danger.
Flores's lawyers
Prosecutors
Release from jail
Flores's lawyers
Flores should be released to a residence in New York under 24-hour guard because her medical issues cannot be adequately treated in jail.
Prosecutors
Flores should remain detained because she poses an extreme risk of flight and danger to the public.
Risk of flight
Flores's lawyers
Her lawyers say she is not a flight risk because she is intent on supporting her husband with her constant presence.
Prosecutors
Prosecutors argue that releasing her would create an extreme risk of flight.
Capture operation
Flores's lawyers
Maduro has described his capture as a kidnapping and calls himself a prisoner of war.
Prosecutors
The Trump administration has defended the raid as a surgical law enforcement operation.
- Flores's age
- 69
- Current detention
- Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn
- Requested arrangement
- House arrest at a New York residence under 24-hour guard
- Reported weight loss
- 25 pounds (11 kilograms), according to her lawyers
- Charges
- Participation in a cocaine-importation conspiracy
- Plea
- Flores and Maduro have pleaded not guilty
- Potential sentence
- Life in prison if convicted