Cilia Flores

Cilia Flores (born October 15, 1956, Tinaquillo, Cojedes, Venezuela) is a Venezuelan politician who served as the country’s first lady beginning in 2013 and is the wife of Pres. Nicolás Maduro. A lawyer by profession, she has been active in Venezuelan politics since the early 1990s and was a close associate of former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. She played a crucial role in bolstering Chávez’s socialist movement, called chavismo, and is one of the most powerful socialist politicians in the country. She has served in key institutional posts, including as leader of the National Assembly from 2006 to 2011. Widely reported as an influential behind-the-scenes political actor, Flores was instrumental in advancing her husband’s political career. On January 3, 2026, Flores and Maduro were captured during a United States military operation in Venezuela and were transferred to the U.S., where they were indicted on multiple charges, including narco-terrorism and cocaine trafficking.

Early life and political career

Flores was born in 1956 in Venezuela’s Cojedes state and raised in a modest household. She studied law at the Universidad Santa María in Caracas and later worked as a lawyer. In the early 1990s Flores became involved in the socialist political movement associated with Chávez and was an active participant in his “Bolivarian Revolution,” which promoted socialism for much of Latin America. She provided legal assistance to Chávez after he was imprisoned for leading a failed military coup against Venezuelan Pres. Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992. She remained closely associated with Chávez during his detention and played a key role in securing his release in 1994. Flores continued to be part of Chávez’s close legal and political circle as he transitioned from military figure to civilian political leader. She also helped Chávez become president in 1999, and a year later she was elected to her first term in the National Assembly.

Leadership in the National Assembly

Flores won her second National Assembly seat in 2005 and a year later became the first woman to serve as president of the assembly, a position she held until 2011. During this period, she also served as the second vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela from 2009 to 2011. In 2012 Chávez appointed her as attorney general. Following Chávez’s death in 2013, Maduro was elected president that April. In July, after she had stepped down as attorney general, Flores married Maduro and assumed the role of first lady of Venezuela.

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In 2017 Flores was elected to a national constituent assembly that was convened by the Maduro government to draft a new constitution. The controversial new body was widely criticized by Venezuelan opposition politicians as an attempt to consolidate Maduro’s political power and suppress the opposition-led National Assembly. The constituent assembly was dissolved in 2020.

Capture and indictment

On January 3, 2026, Flores was captured alongside her husband during a U.S. military operation targeting Venezuelan leadership. The couple were transferred out of Venezuela and taken into custody in the United States. They were subsequently indicted in the U.S. on multiple charges, including narco-terrorism and cocaine smuggling. The military operation followed a sharp deterioration in relations between the two countries throughout 2025, marked by U.S. accusations of narcotics trafficking against the Maduro government, increased military pressure, and the enforcement of sanctions. (Also see 2025 U.S. Strikes on Venezuelan Vessels.) On January 5 the couple were arraigned in a federal court in Manhattan. Both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them, with Maduro declaring “I am still president of my country.”