The prison where Maduro is being held: "A hell on earth"

BogotáFrom the carpets of Miraflores to the darkness of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, two weeks ago He was arrested in Caracas by US forces and transferred the same day to a jail in ManhattanA swift operation—not without deaths on the Venezuelan side—ended when his cell door closed.

A "repugnant, horrible, and hell on earth" space is how those who have visited it describe it. According to witnesses interviewed by CNN, it is dark, crowded, and noisy. Although all prisons are miserable places, "the MDC [as the prison where Maduro is being held, the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, is known] is perhaps the most miserable of all I have visited," noted criminal analyst Elie Honig, one of those who provided testimony to the American network. Even those who hand down sentences acknowledge this. Manhattan federal judge Jesse Furman decided not to send a man to that prison preventively in January 2024 due to its appalling conditions. The individual was later convicted of fentanyl trafficking.

Inmates spend up to 23 hours locked in their cells and are subject to highly restrictive escort protocols when they leave. They also have limited access to phone calls, according to a U.S. Department of Justice report. Furthermore, the prison's overcrowding is also blatant. The MDC houses 1,336 inmates, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and there is both overcrowding and a shortage of staff. Even the police officers themselves don't want to work there. Manhattan Federal Court Judge Colleen McMahon criticized the situation in the two federally run facilities in New York in 2021. Specifically, regarding the guards, she said that they "change constantly, and only stay for a few months or at most a year"; and regarding the prison administrators, she stated verbatim to New York Post"They're idiots."

The history of the two facilities run by the authorities themselves is even darker. In 2021, newspaper headlines dominated the global media map with the death of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in his cell. The incident, which occurred at the Manhattan Correctional Center—run by the authorities themselves—led to its closure. His former partner, Ghislaine Maxwell, did live within the same walls where Maduro now spends his nights and stated that prison guards would shine a light on her cell every 15 minutes to make sure she was alive.

Today, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, conditions at the MDC "have improved" due to "a substantial decrease in violence, limitations on the time inmates are scheduled to leave their cells, and attempts to smuggle contraband," officials recently stated. The reports also justify that the MDC's staffing levels have improved, with 87% of positions filled and a decrease in the number of inmates since January 2024.

A long process

Whether as a "drug kingpin" or a "kidnapped president," Nicolás Maduro and Cília Flores could face life behind bars, though not in the prison where they are currently being held, as it is a temporary detention center. A 25-page indictment from U.S. prosecutors outlines a case that allegedly began in 1999, when Maduro was first elected to public office. According to the indictment, he, Flores, her son, and three other individuals participated in a "relentless cocaine trafficking campaign." The indictment accuses them of collaborating with the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), the Sinaloa and Los Zetas cartels, and the Tren de Aragua gang. But prosecutors also emphasize that the defendants provided "police cover and logistical support" for drug shipments through Venezuela, knowing they were destined for the United States. And the list goes on: providing passports to drug traffickers, facilitating diplomatic cover for planes repatriating drug trafficking profits, or accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes for the safe passage of drug shipments.

"What is your name?" the judge presiding over the case, 92-year-old Alven Hellerstein, asked Maduro. "My name is Nicolás Maduro Moros, I am the president of the Republic of Venezuela. I am being held hostage and was captured in my home in Caracas," he replied, according to the official transcript. "There will be time to learn all of this later; for now, I just want to know if you are Nicolás Maduro," the judge concluded.

Behind closed doors, Maduro's trial seems as opaque as the walls surrounding the prison where the former Venezuelan president now resides.