Cilia Adela Flores de Maduro, born on October 15, 1956, in Tinaquillo, Venezuela, is a prominent Venezuelan lawyer and politician who served as the First Lady of Venezuela from 2013 until early 2026, earning the moniker “First Combatant” from her husband, Nicolás Maduro.
Raised in Caracas from a lower middle-class background, she specialized in criminal and labor law, graduating from Universidad Santa María.
Flores has been a key figure in Chavismo, the political movement started by Hugo Chávez, and is a member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
She was previously married to Walter Ramón Gavidia, with whom she has three children, and later married Maduro in 2013 after a long relationship dating back to the 1990s
Siblings
Flores grew up as the youngest of six children in a family that included her brother Bladimir Flores and at least one sister who passed away.
Her family background was modest, with her father working as a traveling salesman, and they resided in areas of western Caracas.
Details about her other siblings remain limited in public records, but her family ties have often intersected with her political life, including through her nephews who gained notoriety in legal scandals.
Career
Flores began her political ascent in the 1990s as a lawyer defending Hugo Chávez and his allies following the failed 1992 coup attempt, which helped secure Chávez’s release from prison in 1994.
After Chávez’s election in 1998, she quickly advanced, getting elected as a deputy to the National Assembly in 2000 representing the Capital District.
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She chaired the Political Command of the Bolivarian Revolution and played a role in organizing paramilitary groups during the 2002 coup attempt against Chávez.
From 2006 to 2011, Flores served as President of the National Assembly, becoming the first woman in that role, and she swore in Chávez after his 2006 reelection.
She was a founder of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela in 2007 and held the position of Attorney General from 2012 to 2013 under Chávez and briefly under Maduro.
Re-elected to the National Assembly in 2015 and 2016 for Cojedes, she continued her influence, serving in the Constituent National Assembly from 2017 to 2020.
As First Lady starting in 2013, Flores was seen as a key advisor to Maduro, hosting public programs and embedding loyalists in state institutions, though her tenure was marred by accusations of corruption and human rights abuses.
Arrest
Flores was captured by United States forces on January 3, 2026, during a night raid in Caracas as part of U.S. strikes in Venezuela, alongside her husband Nicolás Maduro, and was extradited to New York to face trial.
She pleaded not guilty to multiple drug trafficking and weapons charges in a Manhattan federal court on January 5, 2026, appearing with injuries including a forehead bandage, a fracture, and heavy rib bruising sustained during her abduction.
The unsealed indictment accuses her of accepting bribes in 2007 to facilitate meetings for drug traffickers and involvement in a corrupt regime that flooded the U.S. with cocaine.
This event follows earlier family legal troubles, including the 2015 arrest of her nephews, Efraín Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, in Haiti for attempting to smuggle 800 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S., leading to their 18-year sentences in 2017 and release in a 2022 prisoner swap.
Flores has been sanctioned by countries like the U.S., Canada, and Panama for corruption and money laundering ties.
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