Who is Cilia Flores, wife of Nicolas Maduro, captured by US forces. How he met the president of Venezuela
The US attacked Venezuela on Saturday, and the country's leader, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured, US President Donald Trump announced. The announcement also brought the First Lady of Venezuela, a powerful figure in the country's leadership circle, into the spotlight, notes NDTV.
Cilia Flores, 69 years old, has been married to Nicolas Maduro since 2013.
In the announcement confirming the “large-scale” attack on Venezuela, Donald Trump said the Venezuelan leader and his wife had been captured and taken out of the country.
Trump did not elaborate on how Maduro and his wife were captured or where they were taken. Explosions and planes were heard for about 90 minutes in Caracas at 2:00 local time (8 Romanian time), and Trump's announcement of Maduro's capture came three hours later.
Venezuela's Vice President Delcy Rodríguez said the government did not know the whereabouts of President Maduro or Cilia Flores and demanded “immediate evidence that they are alive.”
US officials told CBS News that the Venezuelan president was captured by members of Delta Force, the US military's top special forces unit.
Who is Cilia Flores?
Cilia Flores was born on October 15, 1956, in Tinaquillo, a small town in northwestern Venezuela. She was the youngest of six siblings and grew up in a mud brick house, according to NDTV.
Her father was a traveling merchant who sold various goods in nearby towns. Flores' family later moved to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, in search of better opportunities. Flores enrolled at a private university to study criminal law.
From poor childhood to “The First Revolutionary Fighter”
Flores initially gained notoriety as a lawyer for Hugo Chavez, former president of Venezuela, and eventually became Venezuela's attorney general. Some call her Lady Macbeth, while she refers to herself as “The First Revolutionary Warrior,” according to The National Post.
During her studies, she was not particularly interested in politics. She worked part-time at a police station, transcribing witness statements, and married her then-boyfriend, a police detective, with whom she had three sons. After earning his law degree, he spent most of the next decade working as a defense attorney for a private firm.
Entry into politics
Flores' political journey began in 1989 during the Caracazo, a series of riots sparked by a fuel price hike that rocked Caracas. Reflecting on that moment, she later told state television that it had awakened a “revolutionary call” in her.
The events also inspired Hugo Chavez, then a lieutenant colonel in the army, to stage a failed coup in 1992. Flores was impressed by him and graffitied his name on the walls of Caracas. She soon sent Chavez a letter offering to be his lawyer, and he accepted.
So he began to advise him and answer the letters of his supporters.
The rise to power and the relationship with Maduro
Cilia Flores and Maduro met in the 1990s in the Venezuelan political context, when Flores was defending Hugo Chávez after the coup attempt in 1992. During this period, Maduro was a close ally of Chávez, later becoming a core member of “Chavismo” and working closely with Flores.
Years later, Maduro described Flores as having a “fiery character” and that he made the first move. Both were in the process of divorcing their husbands and eventually became a couple.
In 2012, Chavez appointed Flores as attorney general, a position she held until her death in March 2013. Maduro, then vice president, won the election and became Venezuela's president. A few months later, in July 2013, Maduro officially married Flores.
