Ex-Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores Cites Heart Ailment in Bid for Jail Release

Former Venezuelan First Lady Cilia Flores is making an urgent plea for temporary release from a U.S. jail, citing a worsening heart condition. Flores, wife of ex-President Nicolás Maduro, is currently awaiting trial on U.S. drug trafficking charges and has asked a federal judge to allow her to serve her pre-trial detention under home confinement.

Her lawyers, Mark Donnelly and Andres Sanchez, filed court papers emphasizing that Flores "deserves the opportunity to await her trial while on home confinement" given her deteriorating health. They propose she be moved from the Brooklyn federal jail to a secure home within the Manhattan federal court district, where she and Maduro are scheduled for trial next June.

The proposed home confinement conditions are stringent: 24-hour armed surveillance, visitors approved strictly by the court and federal prosecutors, video monitoring of the premises, and all calls recorded. Federal prosecutors have yet to respond to the request, and Judge Alvin K.

Hellerstein has not yet ruled on Flores's motion.

Flores, 69, and Maduro, 63, were apprehended in a middle-of-the-night raid in early January from their Caracas home by U.S. forces and subsequently brought to New York City. Both have pleaded not guilty to charges alleging their involvement in a conspiracy to traffic cocaine into the United States. They recently attempted to have their indictment dismissed, arguing they possess immunity as the leader and first lady of a foreign nation.

According to her legal team, Flores has suffered from a mitral valve prolapse for years.

Since her incarceration at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, she has reportedly not received a crucial monthly injection needed to manage her ailment. Instead, she has been prescribed medication such as baby aspirin, a statin, diltiazem, and nitroglycerin for chest pains, and continues to experience reflux.

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