‘Power behind the throne’: Who is Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores?

Monday, 5 January 2026

The ousted Venezuelan leader spent the night in a New York jail following his dramatic capture from his Caracas palace.

US special forces didn’t just capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during their night raid on Caracas - they took his wife, Cilia Flores, too.

The 69-year-old first lady of Venezuela is facing serious charges in New York along with her husband, including drug trafficking and weapons offences.

Flores is widely regarded as a key architect of Maduro’s political strategy and survival, earning the nickname “first warrior”. But who is she really, and how did she come to power?

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores.

Flores rose to prominence as a lawyer defending participants in former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s failed 1992 coup.

She met Maduro during that time, and the pair later married following Chávez’s death in 2013. After a powerful run in Venezuela’s National Assembly, including serving as its leader, she was instrumental in consolidating Maduro’s grip on power.

Publicly, she hosted a family-themed television show and appeared on state TV, but behind the scenes, analysts say she was one of the regime’s most influential figures, the BBC reported.

Flores has faced long-standing allegations of corruption and nepotism. In 2015, two of her nephews were convicted in the US for attempting to smuggle 800kg of cocaine and were later returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap.

Fresh sanctions were announced by the US last month against members of her family, including a third nephew, amid new accusations of links to the drug trade.

US prosecutors accuse Flores of taking bribes to facilitate meetings between traffickers and Venezuela’s anti-drug authorities.

“She was not only the emotional confidant of Maduro, but the professional confidant too,” journalist José Enrique Arrioja told the BBC.

Dr Christopher Sabatini is senior fellow for Latin America at Chatham House.

“To her detractors, she is seen as part of a deeply corrupt, human-rights-abusing and brutal government,” he told the BBC.

“She was a power behind the throne. But like any good power behind the throne, you really didn’t see her hand that much, so no one really knew how powerful she was.”

Flores is due to appear in a New York court on Monday (local time).