‘She was the brains, Maduro was the brawn’: Cilia Flores’s role in Venezuela

Nicolás Maduro waves as he arrives with his wife, Cilia Flores, at the supreme court of Venezuela, in 31 July 2024 Photograph: Ronald Pena R/EPA

Before pleading “not guilty” at her first court hearing after she and her husband, Nicolás Maduro, were captured by US special forces, Cilia Flores made a point of adding, in Spanish: “I am first lady of the Republic of Venezuela.”

But Maduro himself and others close to the couple agree that she was always far more than that. Before her rendition to New York, Flores wielded power comparable with – and at times greater than – that of other figures from the regime, including Delcy Rodríguez, the former vice-president who is now the country’s acting leader.