Who is Cilia Flores, Nicolas Maduro’s wife also captured by US?
Cilia Flores, the former first lady of Venezuela, was captured alongside her husband Nicolas Maduro by US forces. Maduro, who is currently in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, is awaiting trial. But who is Flores? What do we know about the woman who refers to herself as ‘First Revolutionary Combatant’?
The United States’ operation to capture Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro took many by shock.
The former dictator was taken by the US’ elite Delta Force from his home on a military compound in Caracas. He was first taken to Guantanamo Bay via the USS Iwo Jima carrier, then put on a plane to New York City. He has now been transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
But Maduro, the long-time authoritarian leader of Venezuela, wasn’t alone. His wife Cilia Flores was also taken by US forces. But who is Flores, the former first lady of Venezuela? What do we know about her?
Let’s take a closer look:
Early years and moving up
Flores, 69, is a lawyer and politician. She was born on October 15, 1956, in the city of Tinaquillo in the rural Cojedes state. Flores grew up in a mud-floored home alongside half a dozen siblings, of whom she was the youngest. Her father was a travelling salesman. The family later moved to Caracas in search of more opportunity.
Flores enrolled in law at the private Santa Maria University in the capital, specialising in labour and criminal law. There, she met Maikel Moreno, a lifelong friend and a lawyer she would eventually help become Venezuela’s chief justice.
As a student, Flores showed little interest in politics, according to people who knew her. She worked part-time at a police station, transcribing statements from witnesses, and married a longtime boyfriend, a police detective, with whom she had three boys. Upon earning her law degree, she worked for most of the next decade as a defence attorney for a private firm.
She first gained prominence when she helped Hugo Chavez gain his freedom. She met Maduro in the early days of the Chavista movement. Chavez had been sent to jail following a failed coup in 1992 after he tried to overthrow then-President Carlos Andrés Pérez. Maduro at the time was on Chavez’s security team. He joked that Flores broke the ice by winking at him.
“During that struggle for Chávez’s release, we were involved in street activities. I always remember a meeting in Catia, and when a young man asked to speak, he spoke, and I just stared at him. I said, ‘How intelligent,’” Flores recalled.
Flores proved to be invaluable to Chavez in the years that followed. Not only did she help him with the 1998 election, she served as a lawmaker of his Socialist Party in the National Assembly. She later served as the President of the National Assembly in 2006, succeeding Maduro, who became Chavez’s foreign minister. She also served as second vice-president of Chavez’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela. Many described Flores as the most powerful woman in Venezuelan politics.
Cilia Flores first gained prominence when she helped Hugo Chavez gain his freedom. Nicolas Maduro, at the time, was on Chavez’s security team.
Her time in the legislature was controversial, to say the least. She was accused of getting jobs for her close relatives, including her four brothers, two nephews, two cousins and her ex-husband. Flores accused journalists who published stories covering these developments of trying to blackmail her. “I feel proud that they are my family and I will defend them as workers in the Assembly,” she said at the time. She also banned all but state-backed journalists from covering the legislature.
In 2012, Chavez named Flores Attorney General of Venezuela. By then, Chavez was grappling with cancer and Maduro was serving as vice-president. The two visited Chavez in Cuba, where he was being treated for cancer. During the last weeks of his illness, she staunchly backed the government at key moments — defending it against opposition accusations that there was a power vacuum while Chavez fought to recover from his fourth and final cancer operation.
She married Maduro in July 2013, shortly after he succeeded his mentor Chavez as president. By then, Flores and Maduro had been partners for the past two decades.“I’ve told her she is not going to be First Lady,” Maduro said at the time. “I’ve told her to get ready to be the First Fighter of the fatherland, the First Socialist, the first woman of the people of the barrios, of the streets,” he added, giving her a kiss.
The power behind the throne
As first lady of Venezuela, Flores was seen as the power behind the throne and a wily operator. Some even likened her to Lady Macbeth and said she was a key strategist for her husband. She refers to herself as the “first revolutionary combatant”.
Interviews with people close to her portrayed her as a shrewd and stealthy politician who brandished much of the power of her husband’s office, demanding important briefings even before the president and personally negotiating with foreign emissaries, rival lawmakers and others.
Manuel Cristopher Figuera, previously the head of the country’s intelligence agency, said, “Flores has always been behind the curtain, pulling the strings.”
“She is a fundamental figure in corruption in Venezuela — absolutely fundamental — and especially in the structure of power,” Zair Mundaray, who worked as a senior prosecutor under both Chávez and Maduro, told The New York Times. “Many people consider her far more astute and shrewd than Maduro himself.”
As first lady of Venezuela, Cilia Flores was seen as the power behind the throne and a wily operator. Some even likened her to Lady Macbeth and said she was a key strategist for her husband Nicolas Maduro. AP
Flores was said to be one of the most powerful political operators within Venezuela. She is said to have bent the judiciary to her will and had her imprint on major decisions.
She is said to have stocked Venezuelan state media institutions with her relatives and partisans. She is also said to have amassed a massive amount of wealth. Former intelligence officials have claimed that sensitive intelligence reports about Venezuela were sent directly to Flores, bypassing normal channels. She also played a role in monitoring opposition figures and managing internal threats.
“She has a significant political background. When she became first lady, she took a back seat. But for many, she is the power behind the throne or a top adviser,” Carmen Arteaga, a doctor of political science and associate professor at Simón Bolívar University, told CNN. “When they got married, she significantly lowered her profile. She hardly makes public statements, she doesn’t compete for attention, she takes a step back.”
It remains unclear what charges she will face in the United States. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote on X that Maduro and Flores will “soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts”. She referred to them as “two alleged international narco traffickers”.
