When news broke that the US had captured and indicted Venezuela’s longtime authoritarian President, Nicolás Maduro, another name appeared alongside his that left some observers puzzled: his wife’s, Cilia Flores.
Far more than a First Lady, Flores is one of Venezuela’s most powerful political figures. She built extraordinary influence over decades while largely operating from the shadows. Flores shaped a judicial system in which nearly every major decision ran through her and embedded state institutions with relatives and loyalists, according to journalists, analysts and former officials. At the same time, they noted, her family amassed vast, unexplained wealth.
A lawyer from a lower middle class background, Flores began her political rise in the 1990s, becoming close to Hugo Chávez — the former President who was Maduro’s mentor and predecessor — while he was imprisoned after a failed coup attempt in 1992. She steadily climbed the ranks of Chávez’s socialist movement, known as chavismo, becoming a central figure in Venezuela’s legislature.
Flores and Maduro have been partners since at least the late 1990s, when both were lawmakers. They married in 2013, the year he became President. After Chávez’s death, she was widely seen as critical to consolidating and sustaining Maduro’s hold on power, bringing a loyal political base and deep institutional influence.
Within chavismo, she commands both respect and fear, said Roberto Deniz, a Venezuelan investigative journalist who has reported extensively on the Flores family.
“She is a fundamental figure in corruption in Venezuela — absolutely fundamental — and especially in the structure of power,” said Zair Mundaray, who worked a senior prosecutor under both Chávez and Maduro. “Many people consider her far more astute and shrewd than Maduro himself.”
A federal indictment unsealed on Saturday charged Flores, along with her husband and son, with collaborating with drug traffickers.
“She has been basically co-governing the country since he came to power, and in many ways is the strategy or power behind the throne,” said Risa Grais-Targow, the Latin America director for Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. “She’s been key to his staying power, but also now his downfall as well.”