Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court to a new torture-conspiracy charge.

An arraignment is where a defendant answers the charge. A not-guilty plea is a denial. It is not a finding. The torture count was unsealed one week ago, and Thursday was the first time Maduro and Flores answered it in open court. Reuters reported prosecutors do not accuse either of them of personally carrying out torture. The government's theory is that they sat atop the system and directed it. A jury has not heard any of it.

Reuters reported that Nicolás Maduro, 63, and Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, at an arraignment before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Manhattan federal court. The Associated Press reported that Maduro called the new torture allegations false and that Flores said she was completely innocent. NBC New York reported the 11 a.m. hearing was set by a court order issued Wednesday, in Courtroom 26A of the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse, and that it was open to the public in person only, with no electronic devices allowed in the room.

The Justice Department unsealed the superseding indictment on Thursday, Oct. 8. It charges both defendants with narcoterrorism conspiracy, conspiracy to commit torture, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, using and carrying machine guns and destructive devices in furtherance of those conspiracies, and conspiring to do so. The department said the torture count carries up to 20 years. Reuters reported that each defendant faces a mandatory minimum of 50 years in prison if convicted on all counts. Those are statutory exposures. They are not a sentence.

The department alleges that for more than two decades Maduro and Flores presided over a system of repression that relied on arbitrary detention and the torture of detainees, including U.S. citizens. Its release lists electric shock, asphyxiation, forced nudity, prolonged isolation, starvation, punishment cells, and threats to harm or kill victims' families. It says one American detained in Venezuela was deprived of food and water, subjected to simulated drowning, repeatedly beaten, shocked, and given forced injections. Those are the government's allegations. The victims are not named in the indictment, and they are not named here.

Reuters reported one passage from the indictment: in 2014, Maduro allegedly told officials to kidnap military personnel to pull information about possible dissidents out of them, then told them to "squeeze them harder" when some stayed defiant. The indictment says Flores agreed with that plan in the meeting and dismissed a suggested alternative of infiltrating the ranks instead, Reuters reported. Al Jazeera reported the indictment also accuses Maduro of suggesting sleep deprivation and pouring water on detainees. Reuters reported that neither defendant is accused of personally carrying out any act of torture.

The couple were captured by the U.S. military in a Jan. 3 raid on their Caracas home and flown to New York, Reuters reported. They have been held since then at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. They had already pleaded not guilty to the original drug and weapons charges. Al Jazeera reported that at that first appearance in January, Maduro told the court, "I am innocent. I am not guilty. I am a decent man. I am still president of my country."

NBC New York reported that one week before Thursday's hearing, Judge Hellerstein denied Flores' request for home confinement on medical grounds. Her lawyers had argued she has had significant health problems at the Brooklyn jail, including possible cardiac issues. Prosecutors called her an extreme flight risk, and the judge kept her in custody. The station also reported that defense lawyers have asked the court to dismiss the case on head-of-state immunity grounds, and that the government's case is expected to rely in part on former Venezuelan intelligence chief Hugo Carvajal, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges in New York and has cooperated with U.S. authorities.

The trial is scheduled to begin June 1, 2027, Reuters reported. A superseding indictment is an accusation. A plea of not guilty puts the government to its proof. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.