Cilia Flores, 69, wife of Nicolás Maduro, 63, and one of the most influential figures in Venezuela’s Chavismo, has returned to the international spotlight after Donald Trump said on his Truth Social account that the Venezuelan leader had been captured on January 3. The US president stated that both Maduro and Flores were detained by US military forces in Caracas, Venezuela, reigniting global interest in Flores, her political rise, and her role as one of the most powerful women in the Chavista regime.
The early rise of Cilia Flores
Known widely as “Cilita,” Cilia Flores is far more than the wife of Nicolás Maduro. Born in 1958 in Tinaquillo, an industrial town near Valencia, she grew up in Caracas in a modest household and trained as a lawyer.
© JUAN BARRETOHer political career began to take shape in the 1990s, when she joined the legal team that defended Hugo Chávez after his failed 1992 coup attempt and helped secure his release in 1994. It was during this pivotal period in Venezuela’s political history that Flores met Maduro, beginning a personal and political partnership that would later place her at the center of the Chavista movement.
The posts that shaped her power
Cilia Flores’s political rise was steady and strategic. She served as a member of Venezuela’s National Assembly and later became its president, the first woman to hold the post, a milestone that cemented her institutional power. She went on to take senior leadership roles within the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and was appointed attorney general, a position comparable to a chief prosecutor.
© STRINGERAlthough she rarely seeks the spotlight, Flores is widely considered a key behind-the-scenes strategist, with influence over major decisions and internal power dynamics within the Chavista regime.
A partnership forged in politics
Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores share a close political trajectory. The two met in the 1990s within Hugo Chávez’s inner political circle, when Flores was already a trusted lawyer and Maduro was emerging as a union leader and political operative. Their personal relationship developed in parallel with their shared political work, laying the foundation for a long-term alliance at the core of Venezuela’s Chavista movement. At the time, both were married to other partners, but their bond deepened over the years, becoming both personal and political.
Flores and Maduro married in 2013, shortly after Maduro assumed the Venezuelan presidency following Chávez’s death. The wedding formalized a long-established relationship and reinforced their public image as one of the country’s most powerful political couples.
© FEDERICO PARRAThe couple has no children together, though both have children from previous relationships. Flores has three children from her first marriage to Walter Ramón Gavidia Rodríguez, whom she married in 1978 and later divorced. She also has an adopted son who is her nephew, the child of a sister who passed away.
Aligned with her political identity, Flores refers to herself as the “first combatant,” a term that underscores her ideological commitment and her active role alongside her husband within Venezuela’s ruling establishment.
What lies ahead in the United States
On the morning of Saturday, January 3, Trump said he had confirmed the capture of Cilia Flores and Nicolás Maduro and claimed they had already left Venezuela and were en route to New York. Officials aligned with the Venezuelan government said they did not know their whereabouts. For now, reports indicate the pair could face legal proceedings in the United States.
© Joe RaedleTrump announced this on Truth Social, saying the United States carried out a large-scale operation targeting the Venezuelan leader and moved him out of the country alongside his wife after their capture.
According to CBS News, Maduro and Flores are expected to arrive Saturday afternoon at New York Stewart International Airport in Orange County, New York. The exact arrival time has not been confirmed and could be later in the afternoon.
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