Along with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, US special forces also captured his wife Cilia Flores in Caracas. The general public does not know much about her true role in the country's governance, but regime researchers and official sources describe her as one of the most influential figures in Venezuela.
Cilia Flores was born in 1956 in a small town in the northwestern part of the country. As locals recall, the family lived in a clay hut with a dirt floor before moving to Caracas when Cilia was a child. Thanks to her good grades, the future first lady of Venezuela entered a private university, where she studied criminal law. During her studies, Flores worked in parallel at a police station and was not particularly interested in politics, her acquaintances say.
Everything changed in 1989, when riots began against the backdrop of the economic crisis, and in Flores, in her own words, "a revolutionary impulse awakened". In 1992, the future president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, carried out an unsuccessful coup attempt, for which he was sent to prison. It was then that Flores first attracted attention, as she was part of the team of lawyers who defended the coup plotters and helped to free Chavez from prison in 1994. At that time, Flores also met her future husband, Nicolás Maduro. She later divorced her first husband, with whom she had three children. In 1997, Flores was a member of the electoral commission that ensured Chávez's election as president the following year.
The most powerful woman in Venezuela
After Chávez came to power, Flores became the most powerful woman in Venezuelan politics. In 2000, she and Maduro became deputies, and in 2007, Flores was elected speaker of parliament - the first woman to hold this position in the country's history.
Cilia Flores restructured parliament, replacing 50 of its employees with her relatives and acquaintances. According to Reuters, the new appointees included four of her siblings, two cousins and her ex-husband. In 2012, Chávez appointed Flores as attorney general - a position she held until his death in 2013. When Maduro became president, he and Flores officially married.
Maduro prefers to call Flores the "first fighter", rejecting the term "first lady" as "a term from the vocabulary of high society". "She has receded into the background, but for many she is the power behind the throne and the president's main advisor", says political scientist Carmen Arteaga of Flores.
In 2018, when opposition leader Juan Guaido called for Maduro's overthrow after the election defeat, accusing him of fraud, Flores ordered the intelligence services to pass all information directly to her, said then-intelligence chief Manuel Figuera. "Flores always remained behind the scenes, but she pulled the strings", he told Reuters. Dozens of people interviewed by the agency described Flores as a "shrewd and secretive politician" who takes advantage of her position and personally conducts key negotiations. "She is probably the most influential figure after Maduro", former White House senior adviser Fernando Kutz described her role.
"Flores' "Drug Nephews"
In 2015, two nephews of the first lady - Campo and Frankie Flores - were arrested in Haiti. They were accused of trying to sell $20 million worth of cocaine to the United States and were sentenced to 18 years in prison. They are known in Venezuela as the "drug nephews". According to Reuters sources familiar with the case, among the evidence obtained by investigators are text messages between the nephews and Flores in which they discussed the supply of cocaine.
According to the indictment, the proceeds from the deal were to be used to finance Flores' election campaign for the National Assembly. In 2022, the United States will exchange Flores' nephews for seven Americans arrested in Venezuela.
"Key figure in Venezuelan corruption"
The most important informant for US investigators is Yazenki Lamas, who was detained in Colombia and extradited to the United States on drug trafficking charges and was Flores' bodyguard for ten years. Lamas made a deal with the investigation and in her testimony stated that the first lady knew about the cocaine trade for which her nephews were convicted.
"She is a key figure in corruption in Venezuela and especially in the power structure. Many consider her to be much more astute and cunning than Maduro himself," said Zaire Mundaray, a former senior prosecutor, about Flores.
Venezuelan investigative journalist Roberto Denis, who has written extensively about the Flores family, calls Maduro's wife one of the architects of Venezuela's corrupt judicial system. "This is a completely politicized, imperfect, corrupt system, and Celia Flores bears enormous responsibility for what it has become."
"I am innocent. I am absolutely innocent."
Celia Flores has been under US sanctions since 2018. After her capture in Caracas, she is facing trial in New York. The charges against her and her husband are conspiracy to commit narcoterrorism, importing cocaine into the United States, and possessing machine guns and explosive devices.
The indictment alleges that "around 2007" Celia Flores attended a meeting where she "received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to arrange a meeting between a major drug trafficker and the director of the National Drug Enforcement Agency, Nestor Torres".
According to the attorney general, the drug trafficker agreed to pay Torres a monthly bribe for each shipment of cocaine, as well as about $100,000, part of which was then paid to Flores.
"I am the first lady of the Republic of Venezuela. I am innocent. I am absolutely innocent," Flores told a New York court. She faces a life sentence on the charges. The next hearing is scheduled for March 17.
Author: Sergey Nikitin