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FBI Director Kash Patel announced additional charges against ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, alleging that both have committed crimes relating to torture.

Patel announced the new charges in a post on X on Thursday. The two were already indicted on separate charges relating to drug trafficking and firearms shortly after the U.S. invasion of Venezuela that resulted in their capture earlier this year.

Both Maduro and Flores are now facing an additional count of Conspiracy to Commit Torture, Patel said. Flores is also charged with one more count of narcoterrorism.

“They will now answer for their crimes,” Patel promised.

The 30-page indictment alleges that Maduro and Flores tortured opposition party members and dissenters to his presidency from around 1999 through 2025, including some U.S. citizens. The couple have not yet entered a plea on the new charges, but pleaded “not guilty” to the original ones.

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“President Maduro ⁠denies the charges in the new indictment and looks forward to his day in court,” Barry Pollack, Maduro’s lawyer, said in a statement.

Aspects of the charges against Maduro and Flores may prove difficult for the Department of Justice........

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