Cilia Flores seeks Manhattan home detention over worsening heart condition
The former Venezuelan first lady’s lawyers say she needs cardiac treatment and recovery facilities unavailable in a detention centre.
Cilia Flores de Maduro has asked a US judge to transfer her from federal detention to monitored home confinement in Manhattan, citing what her lawyers describe as a worsening heart condition.
In an application for pre-trial release, Flores’s legal team said she may have suffered a minor heart attack on 29 July while in US custody. The claim has not been independently established in the supplied material.
Her lawyers said Flores now takes four medications and has not received her usual monthly injection for mitral valve prolapse. They also said doctors have recommended cardiac treatment that could require further operations and recovery time in a setting suited to restoring her health.
The proposed conditions include round-the-clock armed monitoring, video surveillance at the residence, court-approved visitors and recorded phone calls. Flores’s lawyers acknowledge she has received medical care but argue that a detention centre cannot provide the conditions needed for recovery.
Flores and former president Nicolas Maduro have been held in US custody since a 3 January operation in Caracas. They are awaiting trial in New York on drug- and weapons-related charges and have pleaded not guilty. A judge has yet to rule on the home-detention application.
Flores was Venezuela’s first lady from 2013 and previously led the National Assembly. The account of the operation that led to her removal from Venezuela is presented by the source and has not been independently verified in the supplied material.
