Arrested early Saturday morning along with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was his wife and top advisor, Cilia Flores, who was dragged from her bedroom with her husband by U.S. forces. The couple was quickly expelled from the country to stand trial on drug trafficking charges in the United States.
Maduro’s “chirita” was first lady for more than a decade, but the official term for the socialist movement known as Chavismo calls her “first combatant.” She was President Maduro’s partner for more than 30 years, during which time she built her own political capital and was considered one of Venezuela’s most powerful women.
Cilia Flores was born in 1956 in the town of Tinaquillo in central Venezuela and grew up in a working-class neighborhood in western Caracas. She met Mr. Maduro, who frequently emphasizes his humble origins, in the early days of the Chávez movement. A lawyer specializing in labor and criminal law, she provided legal support to the movement’s namesake, Hugo Chavez, and other military officers captured in 1992 while trying to overthrow then-President Carlos Andres Pérez. Maduro also campaigned for Chávez’s release and was part of Lt. Col.’s security team at the time.
“During the fight for Chávez’s release, we were participating in street activities. I always remember the rally in Catia. When a young man was asked to speak, he spoke and I just looked at him. I thought, ‘How smart,'” Flores recalled on the first episode of Maduro’s podcast in November 2023.
Although they have been inseparable ever since, Flores has carved out his own political path. She was elected to her first term as a member of Congress in 2000, a year after Chávez was elected president. She won her seat again in 2005 and a year later became Chavez’s foreign minister, succeeding Maduro and becoming the first woman to head the parliament.
During her time in office, she banned journalists from entering legislative chambers. She was also criticized for hiring dozens of her relatives as parliamentary staff. In an interview with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, she said the complaint had not been formally filed and that it was a smear campaign, but acknowledged the employment, saying: “Yes, my family members were hired based on their abilities. I am proud of them and will defend their work whenever necessary.”
From 2009 to 2011, she also served as second deputy leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, then led by Chávez, and appointed Attorney General Flores in 2012.
She and Maduro, who was already vice president, visited Mr. Chávez in Cuba, where he was being treated for cancer in the last months of his life. Her Twitter profile, created in 2015, said she was “Daughter of Chavez,” but she changed it to “Chavista” a few years later.
Mr. Flores and Mr. Maduro met after Mr. Chávez surrendered after a failed coup in 1992, and after dating for 20 years, they married in July 2013, shortly after Mr. Maduro’s victory over then-opposition candidate Enrique Capriles in the presidential election.
“She has an important political background. When she became first lady, she was an afterthought. But for many people, she is the power behind the throne, or the top advisor,” Carmen Arteaga, a political science doctorate and associate professor at Simón Bolívar University, told CNN. “After her marriage, she significantly reduced her profile. She rarely speaks in public, does not compete for attention, and takes a step back,” she added.
Arteaga said Flores’ support and advice would have been fundamental at a time when Chávez’s government was experiencing internal conflict over who would succeed Chávez. Maduro, anointed by then-president, still tightened his grip on other prominent figures close to the late leader, including ousted Venezuelan president and energy and oil minister Rafael Ramírez. Rep. Diosdado Cabello or Vice President Elias Jaua.
Within that circle, very few women held high positions. For Arteaga, there was “no doubt” that Flores was the most powerful woman in the country, at least as long as Chavismo was in power.
Political scientist Estefania Reyes told CNN that she wields power “behind the scenes” and it is difficult to quantify because it is not institutionalized. “Not understanding the dynamics of decision-making is dangerous because it makes it difficult to ensure accountability and transparency around influence,” she says. Even if dual leadership existed, it was never formalized, as was the case between Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.
Reyes also pointed out that in recent years, Flores has appeared in a supporting role, not as a central figure in electoral competition, but as a maternal figure in an effort to connect with the public. “Chavistas are exploiting the role of the mother. Symbolically, she is still bound by gender restrictions,” said Reyes, an assistant professor at Canada’s Western University.
The position of first lady had not been adopted in Venezuela for many years since Chávez’s divorce. When Maduro took power, he named Flores his “first combatant” and insisted that “first lady” was an “aristocratic concept.”
In this regard, Mr. Reyes noted that despite the unofficial change in title, the position continues to be linked to causes such as child protection and charity leadership, as in other countries.
Nastassja Rojas, a political scientist and human rights professor at Colombia’s Javeriana University, agrees. “Chavesmo betrayed everything they have criticized by presenting her as the first combatant. What she is planning now is to be the president’s partner, someone who will accompany him. In recent years, they have completely changed her profile,” she told CNN.
Flores’ appearances have decreased since Maduro took power, almost exclusively on one of the many radio programs hosted by members of the ruling party, “With Syria in the Family.”
But her name resurfaced in the headlines in 2015 when two of her nephews were arrested by undercover U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents in Haiti on drug trafficking charges. Although Flores claimed the incident was a kidnapping, the two men were tried in New York, convicted and sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States. In 2022, they were released in a prisoner exchange between Caracas and Washington.
She was also sanctioned by Canadian authorities in 2018, along with 13 other officials, a day after the Organization of American States reported that the Maduro regime had committed crimes against humanity.
Months later, the U.S. Treasury added its own sanctions, explaining in a press release that Maduro “relies on his inner circle to maintain power.” In response, President Maduro declared: “If you want to attack me, attack me. Don’t mess with Syria. Don’t mess with my family. Don’t be a coward. Her only crime is being my wife.”
By this time, Mr. Flores had returned to the Legislative Palace after being elected to the Constituent Assembly in 2017 and becoming a member of the National Assembly in 2021, the position he held at the time of his capture.
Arteaga, a professor at Universidad Simón Bolívar, argued that while socialism champions oppressed peoples, including women, Flores has not distinguished herself by promoting feminist proposals. Arteaga added that Flores “follows a pro-Chavista agenda, but is not known for having a feminist agenda.”
Arteaga said she doesn’t have as much public attention as Maduro, but is just as polarizing as the ousted president. “Right now she is unpopular. She has the same image as him. They work closely together and public opinion perceives them as a single entity,” Arteaga said.
So when the government distributed millions of toys during the 2022 Christmas holidays, it not only distributed images of the Maduro-inspired cartoon character Superbigote, but also of the doll Chirita, a co-star in the animated series.
During Maduro’s 2024 presidential campaign, when re-election was at stake, Flores accompanied her husband to several events, even dancing on stage together.
