Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's wife and closest political adviser, Cilia Flores, was arrested early Saturday along with his wife. Both were removed from their residence by US troops and sent abroad to face drug trafficking charges in the United States.
Known in Chavist circles as “Cilita,” Cilia Flores has been Maduro’s political and life partner for more than three decades. In the terminology of the ruling socialist movement, she has never been called “First Lady,” but “First Fighter,” a title intended to avoid, according to Chavists, an “aristocratic” concept.
Born in 1956 in Tinaquillo, in central Venezuela, Flores grew up in a working-class neighborhood of Caracas. A lawyer trained in labor and criminal law, she became involved early in Hugo Chávez's movement, providing legal assistance to military officers arrested after the 1992 coup attempt. It was during this period that she met Maduro.
Her political career officially began in 2000, when she was elected as a deputy to the National Assembly. She was re-elected in 2005 and in 2006 became the first woman to lead the Venezuelan parliament. During this term, she was heavily criticized for barring journalists from parliamentary sessions and for hiring dozens of family members, accusations she called a smear campaign, although she acknowledged that the hirings had taken place.
Flores remained one of Chávez's most loyal figures. From 2009 to 2011, she was vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and in 2012 was appointed attorney general. After Chávez's death, she was widely considered one of the key figures who helped Maduro consolidate power amid internal Chavismo clashes.
Although she significantly lowered her public profile after marrying Maduro in 2013, analysts have often described her as “the power behind the throne.” According to political scientists, her influence has been largely behind the scenes and not institutionalized, making it difficult to gauge her real role in decision-making.
Her name came back into the headlines in 2015, when her two nephews were arrested by the US DEA for drug trafficking. They were sentenced in New York and released in 2022 as part of a prisoner exchange between Washington and Caracas. Flores has also been sanctioned by Canada and the United States for links to Maduro's inner circle.
Today, Cilia Flores remains a deeply polarizing figure in Venezuela. Although not known for a feminist agenda, she is closely identified with the Chavismo regime and is perceived by the public as an inseparable political unit with Maduro – a role that followed her until her arrest.
