Families Sue Jailed Former Venezuelan Leader Maduro in U.S. Court Over Alleged Killings

Five families filed a civil lawsuit in Brooklyn federal court accusing ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro of authorizing the killings of their relatives by an elite security unit. The 44-page complaint alleges that members of the Special Action Forces, known as FAES, carried out the executions between 2017 and 2020 as part of a pattern of extrajudicial killings during a police surge that left at least 1,300 dead.

Euronews reported that the families, whose identities are protected for safety reasons, sued under the United States' Torture Victim Protection Act and are seeking financial compensation.

The complaint describes officers arriving in Caracas neighborhoods in the early morning wearing all black with faces covered, separating the men from their families, and shooting them before claiming the victims had resisted authority. The lawsuit states that Maduro used FAES as a political instrument to suppress dissent, terrorize low-income neighborhoods, and eliminate opposition.

It adds that the force is widely considered a death squad and that a biased Venezuelan judiciary has blocked accountability.

FAES was dissolved in 2021 after complaints of human rights abuses, including from the United Nations. Maduro is currently in a New York jail awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges after the US military removed him from office in January. In that separate criminal case he is charged alongside his wife Cilia Flores and has pleaded not guilty to four counts including narco-terrorism conspiracy and cocaine importation conspiracy.

The New York Times reported that Maduro is expected to seek immunity as a head of state in the civil suit.