Who is Cilia Flores, Venezuela’s ‘first combatant’?

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were abducted by the Delta Force at the presidential residence in Caracas on January 3rd.

According to Venezuelan officials, the operation brought the nation’s first couple to New York in the US, where they are scheduled to go on trial on Monday. This is in addition to the attacks on the capital that have left at least 40 people dead.

But who is Venezuela’s alleged “first combatant,” Cilia Flores?

Early life

Flores, 69, was born in Tinaquillo, central Venezuela, on October 15, 1956. She was born in a “working-class neighbourhood” in western Caracas, according to CNN.

She received her law degree from the Caracasan university, with a focus on labor and criminal law. Her legal rise to prominence came when she led the effort to stop then-Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez from attempting to overthrow him in 1992.

Flores reportedly assisted in Chavez’s release from prison in 1994, paving the way for his eventual, popular, presidential bid in 1999.

She would play a significant role in Chavez’ Chavismo movement. She met her future husband, 63, who refers to her as “Cilita” after meeting her through the Chavismo movement. For more than three decades, the two have been partners.

She previously married three more children.

a political career

Flores’ rise to fame was not solely attained as Maduro’s partner. Before becoming Venezuela’s “first combatant,” the Chavismo term used instead of “first lady,” she established her own political standing.

Chavez won the presidency in 1999. In 2000, Flores was elected to Cojedes, her home state, as the leader of Venezuela’s National Assembly, the state’s federal body.

In 2005, she won re-election, and in 2006, she took over as the first woman to serve in Venezuela’s parliament.

Flores was appointed Venezuela’s United Socialist Party’s second vice president in 2009, and Chavez appointed her attorney general in 2012.

Maduro won an election to challenge opposition candidate Henrique Capriles after Chavez passed away in 2013. After dating for more than 20 years, Maduro and Flores got married in July 2013.

Flores began working behind the scenes and stepping into her new role as the “first combatant.”

She was elected to the Constituent Assembly, a body that was responsible for drafting the new Venezuelan constitution, in 2017. She then made a comeback to politics. She was reelected to the National Assembly in 2021.

She was still a deputy in the National Assembly at the time of her abduction.

She has been accused of nepotism inside Venezuela by appointing close-knit individuals to powerful political positions.

Charges and capture

International repercussions have also been caused by Flores’ inclusion within Maduro’s inner circle. Following the Organization of American States’ claim that the Maduro government had crimes against humanity, she received sanctions from the US and Canadian authorities in 2018.

She and Maduro are scheduled to appear in court in New York on Monday following her abduction on Saturday. Flores wasn’t seen exiting a plane in the US while Maduro was.

According to Bondi’s post on X, “Narco-Terrorism Conspiracy, Cocaine Importation Conspiracy, Possession of Machineguns and Destructive Devices, and Conspiracy to Possess Machineguns and Destructive Devices against the United States,” she has been indicted in New York’s Southern District, and US Attorney General Pam Bondi has issued her charges in the vein of those against Maduro.

According to The Guardian, Flores is accused of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in 2007 to arrange a meeting between the head of Venezuela’s National Anti-Drug Office and a “large-scale drug trafficker.”

Flores’s nephews were previously detained in the US and given 18-year prison sentences in 2017 for conspiring to import cocaine into the country. In 2022, they were freed as part of a seven US citizens who were currently imprisoned there.

The US claims that Flores’s nephews were allegedly intercepted in Venezuelan Maduro’s presidential hangar on recordings that showed their intention to bring hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the US.

In recent months, US boats carrying Venezuelan nationals have been attacked at least 30 times, killing more than 100 people.

Source: Aljazeera