Tom Bennett<\/strong>
Live reporter<\/p>\n ![\"Flores](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/a0438560-6167-4feb-95b1-1b37e29ab2bd.jpg.webp.webp\")
Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption, <\/p>\n
Flores, left, has been in a relationship with Maduro since the 1990s. The pair married in 2013<\/p>\n
When US forces conducted a night raid on the Venezuelan capital Caracas, they didn’t just drag President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro from his compound and put him on a flight to New York – they took his wife too.<\/p>\n
Cilia Flores, 69, has long been seen as one of the most powerful figures in Venezuela, a political operator in her own right who for decades has shaped the country’s fortunes.<\/p>\n
After years leading Venezuela’s National Assembly, she helped consolidate her husband’s grip on power after his 2013 presidential election victory.<\/p>\n
As First Lady, she was dubbed “First Warrior” by Maduro. But in that role she publicly took a backseat – presenting a more family-oriented face to what critics say was a brutal regime.<\/p>\n
She hosted a TV show, Con Cilia en Familia, and made occasional appearances on state television to dance salsa with her husband. But behind-the-scenes, she is thought to have been one of Maduro’s key advisers, and an architect of his political survival.<\/p>\n
Flores has faced allegations of corruption and nepotism, and in recent years her family members have been found guilty in US courts of cocaine smuggling.<\/p>\n
She will now face drug trafficking and weapons charges in a New York court, along with her husband.<\/p>\n
You can read more on Cilia Flores in our profile. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Who is Cilia Flores, Venezuela’s first lady captured by the US?published at 08:36 GMT 08:36 GMT Tom BennettLive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-675061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115841646264682980","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/be51e5e3-736d-44bc-ace9-ff3c01d567ae.jpg.webp.webp\")
Tom Bennett<\/strong>