Cilia Flores, born in 1956 in the city of Tinaquillo in central Venezuela, grew up in working-class neighborhoods in western Caracas. He met Maduro, who often emphasizes his humble origins, during the early days of the Chavista movement
The wife and main advisor of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Cilia Flores, was captured in the early hours of Saturday, along with her husband, and dragged from her room by US troops. The couple was quickly flown out of the country to stand trial on drug trafficking charges in the US.
“Cilita”, as Maduro calls her, was first lady for more than a decade – although in the official jargon of the socialist movement known as Chavismo she is referred to as “first combatant”. She was Maduro’s partner for more than 30 years, during which time she built her own political capital and was considered one of the most powerful women in Venezuela.
Cilia Flores, born in 1956 in the city of Tinaquillo in central Venezuela, grew up in working-class neighborhoods in western Caracas. He met Maduro, who often emphasizes his humble origins, during the early days of the Chavista movement. A lawyer specialized in labor and criminal law, she provided legal assistance to Hugo Chávez, the movement’s namesake, and other soldiers who were captured after trying to overthrow then-president Carlos Andrés Pérez in 1992. Maduro, in turn, also campaigned for Chávez’s release and was part of the then-lieutenant colonel’s security team.
“During this fight for Chávez’s release, we were involved in street activities. I always remember a meeting in Catia, and when a young man asked to speak, he spoke, and I looked at him. I said: ‘How intelligent'”, recalled Cilia Flores in November 2023, in the first episode of Maduro’s podcast.
Since then, they have remained inseparable, but Flores has charted his own political path. She was elected to her first term as a member of the National Assembly in 2000, the year following Chávez’s election as president. She won a seat again in 2005 and, a year later, became the first woman to preside over parliament, succeeding Maduro, who became Chávez’s foreign minister.
During his term, he banned journalists from entering the legislative chamber. She was also criticized for hiring dozens of relatives as employees in Congress. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, she responded that the complaint was never formalized and that it was a defamation campaign, but confirmed the hirings: “Yes, my family members were hired based on their own merits; I am proud of them and I will defend their work whenever necessary.”
“Chavez’s Daughter”
Between 2009 and 2011, she was also second vice-president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, then led by Chávez, who in 2012 appointed Flores attorney general.
Alongside Maduro, who was already vice-president, he visited Chávez in Cuba, where he was treated for cancer in the last months of his life. Her Twitter profile, when created in 2015, said “Daughter of Chávez”, although she changed it a few years later to “Chavista”.
Flores and Maduro, who met after Chávez surrendered following his failed coup attempt in 1992, married in July 2013, after two decades together and shortly after Maduro’s victory in the presidential elections against then-opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
“She has an important political past. When she became first lady, she took a backseat. But for many, she is the power behind the throne or a high-level advisor,” Carmen Arteaga, a doctorate in political science and associate professor at Simón Bolívar University, told CNN. “When they got married, she significantly lowered her profile. She barely makes public statements, she doesn’t compete for attention, she takes a step back,” he added.
According to Arteaga, Flores’ support and advice would have been fundamental during the years when Chavismo was going through internal disputes over Chávez’s succession. Maduro, anointed by the then president, was still consolidating his leadership over other prominent figures close to the late leader, such as Rafael Ramírez, the ousted president of Petróleos de Venezuela and minister of Energy and Petroleum; legislator Diosdado Cabello or vice-president Elías Jaua.
In this circle, few women held high-ranking positions. For Arteaga, “there is no doubt” that Flores is the most powerful woman in the country, at least while Chavismo is in power.
Exercising power behind the scenes
Political scientist Estefanía Reyes told CNN that it was difficult to quantify his power because he exercised it “behind the scenes” and was not institutionalized. “It is dangerous not to understand the dynamics of decision-making, because this makes it difficult to ensure accountability and transparency regarding influence,” he said. If there ever was dual leadership, it was never formalized, unlike what happened in Nicaragua between President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo.
Reyes also pointed out that Flores has appeared in recent years in a supporting role as a mother figure, seeking to connect more with the public than as an electoral competition figure. “Chavismo instrumentalizes the role of the mother. Symbolically, she remains trapped by gender restrictions,” said Reyes, assistant professor at Western University, in Canada.
For years, the position of first lady was not used in Venezuela, as Chávez had been divorced. When Maduro took power, he christened Flores the “first combatant”, arguing that “first lady” was an “aristocratic concept”.
In this regard, Reyes noted that, despite the informal change of title, the position continues to be linked, as in other countries, to causes such as the protection of children and the leadership of charitable organizations.
Political scientist Nastassja Rojas, a professor of human rights at the Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, agreed. “Chavismo betrays everything it had criticized by presenting her as the first combatant. What she projects now is a person who is the president’s partner, who accompanies him. In recent years, they have completely changed her profile,” he told CNN.
Nephews sentenced in the USA
With fewer appearances since the beginning of Maduro’s government, Flores limited himself almost exclusively to one of the numerous radio programs that ruling party figures have had, entitled “Com Cilia na Família”.
But his name made headlines again in 2015, when two of his nephews were arrested on drug trafficking charges by undercover US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents in Haiti. Flores classified the incident as a kidnapping, but both were tried and convicted in New York and sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiracy to import cocaine into the US. In 2022, they were released in a prisoner exchange between Caracas and Washington.
It was also sanctioned in 2018 by Canadian authorities, along with 13 other Venezuelan officials, one day after the Organization of American States denounced that Maduro’s government had committed crimes against humanity.
A few months later, the US Treasury Department added its own sanctions, explaining in a statement that Maduro “depends on his inner circle to remain in power.” In response, Maduro declared: “If you want to attack me, attack me. Don’t mess with Cilia. Don’t mess with the family. Don’t be cowards. Her only crime is being my wife.”
By this time, Flores had returned to the Legislative Palace after being elected in 2017 to the Constituent Assembly and, in 2021, as a deputy to the National Assembly, a position she held at the time of her capture.
A polarizing figure
Arteaga, professor at Simón Bolívar University, maintains that Flores did not distinguish herself by promoting feminist proposals, although socialism defends the oppressed, including women in this group. Flores “follows the Chavista agenda; she is not known for a feminist agenda,” Arteaga added.
Although she has not attracted as much public attention as Maduro, Arteaga said she is as polarizing as the deposed president. “Currently, she is unpopular; she has the same image as him. They work together, and public opinion sees them as a single entity,” Arteaga said.
So, when the government distributed millions of toys for the 2022 Christmas holidays, it distributed images of the “SuperBigote”, a cartoon character inspired by Maduro, but also the doll “Cilita”, the co-star of the animated series.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, which resulted in Maduro’s disputed re-election, Flores accompanied her husband to several events, even dancing with him on stage.
