MIAMI.- Cilia Floreswho is being prosecuted in the US with her husband Nicolas Maduro for narcoterrorism, laid the foundations for 30 years of a network in Venezuela that allowed Chavismo control of the canand was key to dismantling the institutions along with relativesaccording to a report by the NGO Transparencia Venezuela in exile.
The investigation “Cilia Flores: more than 30 years amassing power with Chávez and Maduro” which was released this Friday by the organization that monitors corruption in the country, reveals how the once “first Combatant” of Chavismo gained so much power
From being the lawyer for the coup plotters led by Chávez who tried to overthrow the democratic government in 1992, she went on to have links with more than a hundred companies, placed more than 30 relatives in strategic positions and obtained greater power and control with the rise of Maduro to the presidency in 2013.
Flores and Maduro left power in Venezuela on January 3, after a US military operation captured them on Venezuelan soil to present them before US justice for an investigation into charges of conspiracy in drug trafficking since 2020.
Cilia Flores, the power behind the power
The NGO report indicates that Flores forged his loyalty to Hugo Chávez, commander of the Army, since 1990 when he founded a human rights circle that was key in achieving a presidential pardon for the coup plotters in 1994.
According to reports, Flores had previously held a position in a police investigation delegation.
But her role was decisive in being elected deputy and then president of parliament between 2006 and 2011.
“He was a protagonist in the dismantling of the separation of powers. Under his command, enabling laws were approved that allowed Chávez to dictate more than 200 decree-laws that allowed him to govern without any control,” the investigation indicates.
Family members online
Flores, coming from popular sectors, introduced family members into public administration, the report states
“We identified at least 30 relatives in his inner circle (although there is talk of more than 40), of which 17 have held strategic public positions, as far as we know. Nepotism was a practice, a method of institutional control.”
The study identifies among the key members of the clan Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, who is said to be his “favorite nephew” and who held 16 positions, in various bodies and entities, such as the National Assembly, the Chancellery, the Vice Presidency of the Republic, the Treasury, and PDVSA.
Other nephews are Efraín Campo Flores and Franqui Flores de Freitas, prosecuted for drug trafficking in the US and released in 2022 in an exchange during the Biden administration. “The case exposed attempts to finance campaigns with illicit money. However, his network of influence remained intact.”
Other relatives of Flores were linked to security and justice organizations that “have shielded critical areas of citizen control and identification,” he points out.
Justice in Venezuela
Flores would also have exerted decisive influence in the election of magistrates and judges who “guaranteed decisions aligned with the Executive,” the NGO maintains in its report.
“Flores became the executor of the co-option of the Supreme Court of Justice and, thus, of a large part of the structure of the State. Between 2014 and 2015, she promoted the appointment of “express” magistrates to annul the National Assembly, which in 2015 had an opposition majority.”
However, Flores’ power was not only political, he says. It would be linked to 122 companies, many of them in strategic sectors and international operations, in more than 5 countries.
“67 linked to his children Walter, Yosser and Yoswal Gavidia Flores; 30 linked to his niece Iriamni Malpica Flores, and another 25 linked to his nephew Carlos Erik Malpica Flores.”
“Will her arrest in the US definitively stop her influence? Will she somehow escape safely?” are questions that Transparencia Venezuela expresses in its report. “Is the Cilia Flores era over?”
