The Daily Journal.— FBI Director Kash Patel addressed the indictment against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and former first lady Cilia Flores de Maduro on Wednesday, focusing his remarks on the defendants’ criminal liability and the agency’s support for the operation that led to their arrest. In a post on the social media platform X, Patel described the charges as a necessary step toward bringing both defendants to justice.
“Following an FBI investigation alongside our interagency partners, this morning deposed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was charged in a superseding indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit torture,” Patel wrote. He added that the same indictment charges Cilia Flores de Maduro with “one count of conspiracy to commit torture and one count of narcoterrorism.”
The FBI director said the Venezuelan regime tortured more than a dozen U.S. citizens while they were in Venezuelan government custody, including through the use of drugs, electrocution and sexual assault, among other methods. “Now they will answer for their crimes,” he said.
Patel linked the charges to the law enforcement operation carried out in January, which he said received support from the FBI and resulted in the arrest of Maduro and his wife and their transfer to the United States. The FBI director described the operation as “one of the most daring rendition operations in U.S. history” and said it required months of coordination, detailed planning and flawless execution by multiple components of the federal government under the leadership of the Department of War.
In his statement, Patel framed the charges as part of the agency’s commitment to accountability, the rule of law and the protection of U.S. national security. He also specifically thanked the FBI’s New York field office, which he said led the investigation alongside its partners.
Patel’s statement represents the FBI’s most direct endorsement of a case authorities had previously announced and now officially links the charges to the operation that led to the capture of Maduro and Flores.
