New US indictment charges former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with torture

U.S. au­thor­i­ties charged for­mer Venezue­lan Pres­i­dent Nicolás Maduro with con­spir­ing to tor­ture his fel­low cit­i­zens in or­der to main­tain his hold on pow­er. The new in­dict­ment, un­sealed Thurs­day, adds pres­sure on the oust­ed au­thor­i­tar­i­an leader al­ready fight­ing drug traf­fick­ing of­fens­es.

Maduro, who was pre­vi­ous­ly charged with par­tic­i­pat­ing in a con­spir­a­cy to send co­caine in­to the U.S., is now al­so fac­ing al­le­ga­tions of hu­man rights abus­es dur­ing his reign as pres­i­dent of the oil-rich South Amer­i­can na­tion.

“He au­tho­rized the use of tor­ture against spe­cif­ic in­di­vid­u­als and over­saw a sys­tem de­signed to use tor­ture, ar­bi­trary de­ten­tion and vi­o­lence as a means of re­pres­sion against the po­lit­i­cal op­po­si­tion,” says the re­vised in­dict­ment, which new­ly charges Maduro and his wife, Cil­ia Flo­res, with tor­ture con­spir­a­cy.