When Donald Trump announced that Nicolás Maduro had been captured and flown out of Venezuela on Saturday morning, there was barely a mention of the woman alongside him – Cilia Flores, Venezuela's First Lady, now in American custody after decades wielding extraordinary power from the shadows of Caracas' Miraflores Palace.
Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, born 15 October 1956 in Tinaquillo, Venezuela, is far more than a president's wife. She is a lawyer, a veteran revolutionary, and according to multiple Venezuelan political sources, the authentic strategist orchestrating key decisions in the Maduro government – a woman variously described as possessing the cunning of Cersei Lannister from Game of Thrones and the stealth authority of China's Mao's widow.
