Cilia Flores: Venezuela’s “First Combatant” Imprisoned in the US

The International Working Women’s Day 2025 saw Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, recite a poem she authored celebrating the historical role of Latin American women in resisting imperialism. A year later, Flores is reportedly languishing in a New York City jail cell, following what’s been described as a forceful abduction from her home during a U.S.-backed operation against Venezuela on January 3rd. Initial images following the alleged kidnapping showed Flores with visible facial bruising, and reports indicate she sustained broken ribs, required 23 stitches to her forehead, and her health is deteriorating even as in U.S. Custody.

Beyond ‘First Lady’: A Life of Political Activism

Cilia Flores is not a conventional First Lady. Her public life began in 1992 as a defense attorney for Venezuelan military personnel who rebelled against the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez, following the violent suppression of the “Caracazo” protests of 1989 – widespread unrest sparked by neoliberal austerity measures. Among those soldiers was Hugo Chávez, the future founder of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Flores founded the Bolivarian Circle of Human Rights in 1993 and became a key figure in Chávez’s revolutionary movement. After assisting Chávez in winning two consecutive presidential elections, she was elected to the National Assembly in 2000. In 2006, she became President of the National Assembly, the first woman to hold that position in Venezuelan history. She held significant roles within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and, in 2012, was appointed Attorney General, a position she relinquished to lead Nicolás Maduro’s presidential campaign following Chávez’s death.

When Nicolás Maduro was elected president, he and Flores formalized their long-standing relationship in marriage. Maduro, recognizing that the title “First Lady” didn’t adequately reflect Flores’s importance to the Bolivarian Revolution, designated her as the “first combatant.”

Working largely behind the scenes as a key advisor to President Maduro, Flores successfully ran for the National Assembly in 2015, 2020, and 2025. She now faces accusations of conspiracy to import cocaine, along with charges of possessing machine guns and destructive devices – allegations dismissed by supporters as baseless.

Venezuela, the U.S., and the Shifting Narrative on Drugs

In the early 1990s, when Venezuela was a close ally of the United States, more than 50% of the world’s cocaine reportedly transited through the country. By 2025, as Venezuela was increasingly viewed as a “unusual and extraordinary threat” by the U.S., that figure had reportedly dropped to 5%. The claim by former President Trump that Venezuela was flooding the United States with cocaine – often conflated with fentanyl, which is neither produced nor trafficked in Venezuela – lacks a factual basis.

Now, with the Trump administration exerting control over Venezuela’s oil trade, the narrative has shifted. A new anti-narcotics cooperation agreement was promoted following a visit by the head of U.S. Southern Command to Venezuela. The question arises: did the alleged kidnapping of Nicolás and Cilia Flores serve to simply end the purported drug operation, an operation that may never have existed? The accusations of drug trafficking, critics argue, were used to discredit the Venezuelan government and pave the way for the January 3rd operation.

A Champion for Women and Palestine

While Cilia Flores is a prominent political prisoner, many women’s rights organizations have remained silent regarding her case. As a member of the Venezuelan National Assembly, she played a crucial role in advancing democratic, economic, and social rights within the country.

Flores is too a vocal supporter of Palestine. Speaking at a conference in Turkey in November 2023, she stated: “We are witnessing a genocide […] We see the victims in Gaza. We see children, women, the elderly and civilians dying. We see civilian victims leaving their destroyed homes, but they cannot leave the city because they are in an open-air prison.”

Flores brought feminist principles into the Bolivarian Revolution. On International Working Women’s Day in 2023, she helped launch a social mission aimed at protecting women from the worst effects of the economic war waged against Venezuela. At that time, she affirmed: “The Venezuelan woman has shown that she is at the forefront… women are more than half of the population, but we are also the mothers of the other half, so we make up a whole, and in this relentless war that Venezuela has experienced, we have achieved victory and we stand firm thanks to the participation of the Venezuelan woman, who did not stay at home just taking care of her children, forging the family, but also took to the streets to defend the Homeland. Our women are patriots, and as such, they defended our Commander Chávez, those same women, with the same love and frenzy, are accompanying President Nicolás Maduro. And for the next scenario, whatever it may be, we will emerge victorious because women will be at the forefront of any battle.”

Little did Flores recognize that the next scenario would be a jail cell in the United States. In solidarity with Cilia and Venezuelan women, a growing call is emerging for her immediate release.

As a reminder of the poem she penned, her words resonate powerfully today.

Original text: https://znetwork.org/znetarticle/a-first-lady-in-a-new-york-cell/

This translation may be freely reproduced provided its integrity is respected and the author, translator, and Rebelión are credited as the source of the translation.