Nicolas Maduro spends his detention in solitary confinement and shouts at night: “I was kidnapped! Tell my family and Venezuelans that we are being mistreated”
Captured on January 3rd and later incarcerated in the MDC Brooklyn federal prison in the US, Nicolas Maduro is spending his detention in total isolation. According to inside sources, quoted by ABC Spain, the former leader from Caracas shouts at night that he was “kidnapped” and that it is “the president of Venezuela“.
Maduro in January after his capture. PHOTO Profimedia
Accused in the US of narco-terrorism, Maduro was placed in a cell of several square meters, under a strict security regime in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), a massive concrete block in an industrial area, is considered one of the toughest in the US federal system.
“It's hell on earth. It is in a state of utter disrepair, understaffed and under-resourced. No one would want to spend even a minute there“says Sam Mangel, a prison consultant with experience in federal centers, according to the same publication, quoted by the Venezuelan site Morfema Press.
Other famous names also passed through the MDC cells: Ghislaine Maxwell, former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, cartel bosses such as Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada or former Chavista officials such as Hugo 'El Pollo' Carvajal.
Total isolation in SHU: three meters by two and barely perceptible light
Sources close to the file say that Maduro was placed in the Special Housing Unit (SHU), the isolation ward used for suicide prevention, protection of vulnerable prisoners or disciplinary sanctions. In reality, it means almost complete isolation.
The cell is about three meters by two, with a metal bed, a toilet, a small sink and a narrow window through which very little light enters. Inmates can only go out three times a week for one hour, handcuffed and escorted by two guards.
Celebrity inmates are typically held in the SHU for just a few days, but in Maduro's case, the isolation appears to have been extended for security reasons: he is perhaps the most high-profile detainee in the center's history.
“Tell my family I've been kidnapped!”
Lawyers for another Venezuelan detainee in a nearby cell told ABC about the nights Maduro shouts in Spanish, demanding to be heard:
“I was kidnapped! Tell my family and Venezuelans that we are being mistreated!“
On January 5, Maduro was brought before a Manhattan court. He presented himself there “President of the Republic of Venezuela”stated that it was “abducted” and claimed he was captured in his own home in Caracas. The judge replied that the legality of the capture would be discussed “at the right time”.
Maduro said he did not know his rights until then and pleaded not guilty.
The criminal trial of the former Venezuelan leader is expected to be complex: charges of narco-terrorism, conspiracy to introduce cocaine into the US, use of heavy weapons.
His lawyers are preparing a broad strategy based on challenging the capture, which they call “military abduction”.
