NEW YORK - U.S. prosecutors unveiled new criminal charges Thursday accusing former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, of conspiring to torture political opponents and detainees, including American citizens.

The superseding indictment adds a torture-conspiracy count to existing accusations of narcoterrorism, cocaine importation and weapons offenses. Maduro and Flores were captured at their Caracas home in a U.S. military operation in January and brought to New York, where both previously pleaded not guilty to the drug-related charges.

An indictment is an allegation, and both defendants are presumed innocent unless convicted. Maduro's lawyer said he denies the new charges and looks forward to presenting his case. Flores' attorney said Thursday that he had not yet reviewed the added allegations.

Prosecutors allege that Maduro and Flores sat atop a state system that used Venezuela's military, intelligence services, courts, police and pro-government armed groups to silence opposition and preserve their power. The Justice Department said the alleged abuses included beatings, electric shocks, asphyxiation, forced nudity, starvation, prolonged isolation and threats against prisoners' families.

The indictment claims Maduro requested updates on particular detainees, reviewed a forced-confession video, discussed methods of abuse and threatened the death of one prisoner's child as psychological torture. It alleges Flores helped develop the system and ordered the torture of specific people. Those claims have not yet been tested at trial.

Three American victims are described in the indictment. One account matches Osman Khan, who was detained in Venezuela in 2022 and released eight months later in a prisoner exchange. Khan and former U.S. Marine Matthew Heath later won a $300 million default judgment against Maduro and other Venezuelan officials under a federal anti-terrorism law.

The case also draws on cooperation from Hugo Carvajal, a former Venezuelan military intelligence chief and Maduro co-defendant who pleaded guilty to drug-trafficking charges after his extradition from Spain. The Associated Press reported that Carvajal has met with prosecutors building the case.

Maduro served as Venezuela's president from 2013 until his capture. The International Criminal Court has separately investigated alleged crimes against humanity connected to the government's repression of opponents. Maduro has consistently denied wrongdoing and his lawyers have argued that the U.S. case should be dismissed because he and Flores had immunity as Venezuela's head of state and first lady.

The torture-conspiracy charge carries a maximum 20-year sentence. Other counts include mandatory minimum terms and possible life imprisonment. Flores, 69, was denied release to house arrest Thursday after a judge found that she presented an extreme flight risk despite her lawyers' concerns about her health.

Authoritarian power must face lawful judgment

The significance of this prosecution reaches beyond two defendants. Authoritarian systems survive by making abuse feel administrative: an arrest order, an interrogation room, a coerced statement and a court that refuses to ask questions. Individual responsibility disappears inside the machinery of the state.

A public trial can reverse that process by attaching names, dates and evidence to decisions. American courts give Maduro and Flores rights that their alleged victims often lacked: counsel, access to the accusations, a neutral judge and the presumption of innocence. That contrast is not weakness. It is the democratic advantage.

The United States must still confront difficult questions about how the defendants were seized and whether jurisdiction and immunity arguments apply. Accountability cannot be defended by pretending legal controversy does not exist. Courts should examine those issues openly and explain their rulings, because selective or improvised justice would undermine the principle the prosecution claims to protect.

Evidence from a cooperating insider such as Carvajal also requires scrutiny. A witness seeking leniency may possess valuable knowledge and powerful incentives. His claims should be corroborated with records, other testimony and forensic evidence rather than accepted because they fit an expected story.

Even with those cautions, the allegations describe the familiar logic of dictatorship: state institutions converted into personal instruments, fear used to replace consent and human bodies treated as warnings to everyone else. Venezuelans who resisted Maduro's rule have long reported arbitrary detention and abuse. The new indictment gives some of those claims a forum where evidence can be challenged rather than censored.

The darker reality is that international institutions often document repression for years while victims wait and rulers remain protected by office. A fair conviction would show that political power is not permanent immunity. A fair acquittal, if prosecutors fail to prove the case, would show that American justice is not merely revenge. Either outcome must come through evidence and law, because that is precisely what authoritarian rule denies.