The wife of former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, Cilia Flores, requested home detention pending trial on Wednesday, citing a “serious” cardiac condition.
Mark Donnelly, an attorney for Flores, said she “deserves the opportunity to await her trial while on home confinement, recovering from invasive heart surgery,” according to the filing.
“Prior to the United States’ military invasion of Venezuela, Ms. Flores de Maduro was physically healthy and took no ongoing medication, other than a monthly injection to help control her mitral valve prolapse,” Donnelly wrote. “Now she is prescribed four medications, maintains nitroglycerin by her side in the event of a potential heart attack, and grapples with the continued medical advice suggesting coronary exploration and surgery.”
Maduro, 63, and his wife, 69, are scheduled to go on trial on drug trafficking charges next June 1. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein has set oral arguments for Nov. 17 on motions to dismiss the indictment.
Last week, Maduro and Flores asked a judge to dismiss the drug trafficking indictment against them on the grounds that they have immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign country.
The couple has been held at a Brooklyn jail since U.S. forces seized them from their Caracas home in a middle-of-the-night raid in early January and brought them to New York.
Cilia Flores’ request
In the filing, Donnelly suggested that her pre-trial conditions include home detention, GPS location monitoring, 24-hour armed surveillance, surrender of all travel documents, and appointment of a third-party custodian approved by pretrial services and the court. He said the Trump administration is aware of his client’s request but is opposed to her being released.
Donnelly continued, saying she has not received her monthly injection to aid the mitral valve prolapse since her incarceration.
He added, “most significantly, the medical team consulted by the MDC has advised that she should undergo cardiac catheterization which will likely lead to more invasive procedures related to her heart.”
“Despite the ongoing efforts of the MDC staff, a detention center lacks the conditions needed for such a recovery. Moreover, the government is unable to commit to any course of treatment or recovery beyond advising that they will abide by whatever the medical team determines is medically appropriate. Her reticence to undergo cardiac exploration and surgery only to return to the conditions which have contributed to the deterioration of her health is reasonable,” he said.
Donnelly said she has lost more than 25 pounds, two molars, and sleeps no more than three to four hours per day.
On July 29, 2026, Flores suffered a significant, 30-minute episode of intense pressure in her chest along with feeling a lack of oxygen; she considered taking her sublingual nitroglycerin tablets but ultimately was able to overcome the symptoms without the medication, according to the filing.
Donnelly said she suffers from lingering light-headedness, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
“Her legal team, again in consultation with outside medical experts, believe she may have suffered a minor heart attack. No labs were taken or documented at that time in her medical records. Without performing an additional echocardiogram to compare heart function to her prior testing, it is unclear the extent of coronary damage she may have suffered,” he wrote.
