Who is Cilia Flores, Venezuela’s first lady captured by the US?

When US forces launched a night raid on the Venezuelan capital Caracas, they not only dragged President Nicolás Maduro from his compound and onto a boat bound for New York, they also took his wife away.

Cilia Flores, 69, has long been considered one of Venezuela’s most powerful figures and is a political actor in her own right who has shaped the country’s destiny for decades.

After years of leading Venezuela’s National Assembly, she helped consolidate her husband’s grip on power after his victory in the 2013 presidential election.

As First Lady, she was given the nickname “First Warrior” by Maduro. But in this role he remained publicly in the background, presenting a more family-oriented face towards what critics described as a brutal regime.

She hosted a TV show called Con Cilia en Familia and appeared occasionally on public television to dance salsa with her husband. But behind the scenes, he is thought to be one of Maduro’s most important advisors and the architect of his political survival.

Flores has faced allegations of corruption and nepotism, and in recent years his family members have been convicted of cocaine trafficking in US courts.

She will now face drug trafficking and weapons charges in a New York court along with her husband.

Flores met Maduro in the early 1990s, when, as a promising young lawyer, he defended those who planned the failed 1992 coup attempt.

Chief among these is Hugo Chavez, who would later become president.

He met Maduro, who worked as Chavez’s security guard in those years.

“I met Cilia while he was alive,” Maduro said. “He was the lawyer for many imprisoned patriotic officers. But he was also the lawyer for Commander Chávez, and, well, being Commander Chávez’s lawyer in prison… it’s hard.”

“I met him during the struggle years and then he caught my eye.”

From then on, their fates became linked to Chavez and his political movement known as Chavismo.

After Chavez won the presidency in 1998, Flores quickly rose through the political ranks, joining the National Assembly in 2000 and becoming its leader in 2006.

For six years he governed an almost one-party parliament; The main opposition parties refused to participate in the elections, saying they were not free and fair.

When Chavez died in 2013, Flores threw his weight behind Maduro, who narrowly won the next presidential election.

Months later, the couple married, formalizing a years-long relationship in which they lived together and raised children from previous relationships: three his and one his.

“He has become a critical part of the Maduro regime,” said José Enrique Arrioja, a Venezuelan journalist and editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly.

“He was not only Maduro’s emotional confidant, he was also his professional confidant. And he was very power-oriented.”

He has faced numerous allegations of corruption throughout his career.

In 2012, he was accused by unions of influencing the hiring of up to 40 people, including family members.

“My family came here and I’m very proud that they are my family. I will defend them,” he responded.

He was involved in this in November 2015 The case of “Narco’s nephews”Two of his nephews – Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores – had been arrested in an operation in Haiti by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

They were caught trying to smuggle 800 kilos of cocaine into the USA.

Flores accused US authorities of “kidnapping” his nephews; however, the judge sentenced the two men to 18 years in prison for drug trafficking. They were extradited to Venezuela in 2022 as part of prisoner exchange Under the Biden administration.

But last month, the Trump administration announced new sanctions on the two nephews as well as the third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent saying: “Nicolás Maduro and his accomplices in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people.”

“Treasury holds the regime and its cronies and companies accountable for ongoing crimes,” he added.

The newly filed indictment against Flores accuses him of, among other things, accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to arrange a meeting in 2007 between a “large-scale drug trafficker” and the director of Venezuela’s National Drug Enforcement Agency.

“To his critics, he is seen as part of a deeply corrupt, human rights-abusing and brutal government,” says Christopher Sabatini, Senior Fellow in Chatham House’s Latin America program.

“There was power behind the throne,” he adds. “But like any good force behind the throne, you couldn’t really see his hand, so no one knew how powerful he was.”

He is expected to appear in court on Monday.

Additional reporting by BBC Mundo