Bild: US Detained More Than Just Maduro's Wife

Washington considers Flores a central figure in an international drug trafficking network.

Like her husband, Silia Adela Flores de Maduro was detained on Saturday night in a spectacular U.S. Army operation in Caracas. Now the wife of the deposed dictator is also awaiting trial in a Brooklyn jail. What is she accused of and who is she? That's what BILD writes.

Flores was born in 1956 in the state of Cojedes "on a ranch with clay soil," Maduro once said. She moved to Caracas with her family at an early age, according to the BBC. At 32, she earned a law degree, which brought her into Maduro's orbit. They met in the 1990s. She is the lawyer for former Venezuelan President Ugo Chavez, Maduro is his confidant. Celia "winked at him," the dictator recalled of their acquaintance. They did not marry until July 2013, shortly after Maduro took office as president. They have no children in common. Flores has three sons from her first marriage and Maduro has one son.

Flores has not been a first lady who smiles and visits schools or nursing homes. The New York Times calls her one of the regime's most powerful figures - she is not called first lady, but "Primera Combatiente" ("First Combat Associate"). Flores' political rise began back in the 1990s. As lead counsel, she secured the release from prison of Hugo Chavez after he failed in a 1992 coup attempt. And in 1994, she obtained a pardon for him from new President Rafael Caldera.

"Co-President"

In 2006, Flores became the first woman to serve as president of Venezuela's parliament. She accepted the position from (surprise!) Nicolas Maduro. He also became foreign minister. Flores has also proved adroit at nepotism: until 2011, according to the newspaper Tal Cual, at least 16 of her relatives had gotten jobs in parliament. Vanity Fair even talks about 40. In 2012, Flores became the government's top lawyer. Experts often describe her as the "brain" of Maduro's legal and institutional maneuvers. She resigned in March 2013, but her influence has not been affected.

"Nicolás is the face, but Celia is the fist. Nothing of significance happens in the Miraflores Palace without her approval. She is the one who controls the loyalty of the judges," the Miami Herald quoted a former high-ranking Venezuelan domestic intelligence officer as saying in 2017.

After the opposition won the 2015 elections, Flores returned to parliament as a deputy and went on television. Her program is called "Con Cilia en Familia." She visits families and demonstrates her closeness to the people. In 2017, she enters the Constituent National Assembly to shut up her husband's political opponents. In 2021, she becomes a deputy again - until the US arrests her on January 3.

Oppressor and Accused

Human rights organizations and UN investigators hold Maduro's regime responsible for extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions and political persecution. Critics also accuse Maduro of worsening the country's humanitarian crisis by blocking international humanitarian supplies. And always at the center of the accusations is Celia Flores.

"She was never the first lady. She was a co-president. In the DEA (U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, ed.) files, she is not listed as a spouse, but as a key figure in the regime's financial networks," a former senior DEA official told the New York Times in 2020.

The U.S. government considers Flores a central figure in an international drug trafficking network. She has been on sanctions lists of Western nations for years. Now she is officially facing charges in the U.S.: drug trafficking, terrorist financing and illegal weapons possession.

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