AFP. The families of five young men killed in Venezuela have filed a lawsuit against former Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in a U.S. court, accusing him of ordering extrajudicial executions as part of a broader pattern of state violence.
The 44-page lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, alleges that Maduro instructed the Special Action Forces of the National Police (FAES) to execute the men between 2017 and 2020.
The complaint states that the victims belong to the thousands of people killed under Maduro’s command by units that included the FAES. Authorities dissolved the force in 2021 after widespread allegations of abuse, including accusations from the United Nations.
Maduro remains in a New York jail awaiting trial on federal drug trafficking charges after the U.S. military removed him from power during an operation in Venezuela in January.
Throughout his presidency, from 2013 to 2026, critics repeatedly accused him of relying on repression to remain in power.
The civil lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Brooklyn, argues that the killings of the five young men followed a well-documented pattern of extrajudicial executions under Maduro’s government.
The filing describes how FAES officers entered the victims’ neighborhoods before dawn, dressed entirely in black and wearing face coverings. They separated the men from their families before shooting them.
Officials later created accounts claiming that the victims had “resisted law enforcement.”
“Maduro used the FAES as a political instrument and a mechanism of social control to violently suppress dissent, terrorize low-income neighborhoods, and eliminate political opposition,” the lawsuit states.
“Indeed, the FAES are widely regarded as a ‘death squad’ or ‘extermination group,'” it adds.
The complaint argues that Venezuela’s biased judicial system has prevented accountability for the killings.
The families, whose identities remain protected for security reasons, filed the lawsuit under the U.S. Torture Victim Protection Act and seek monetary compensation from Maduro.
According to The New York Times, the former Venezuelan strongman is expected to seek immunity as a head of state.
In his criminal case, where prosecutors also charged his wife, Cilia Flores, Maduro has described himself as a “prisoner of war.”
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, including conspiracy to import cocaine and weapons possession.
