In a jail in Brooklyn, Cilia Flores — the ousted first lady of Venezuela — has not been feeling well. She has lost two teeth. Her weight has dropped by 25 pounds. Her heart condition has gotten worse, her lawyers say. Now, as she awaits trial on drug-trafficking charges alongside her husband, the toppled Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, attorneys for Flores have asked a federal judge to release her from jail. They want her placed under house arrest, where she can recover from a procedure recommended by the doctors in her Brooklyn jail.

Prosecutors haven't disputed that Flores has health issues. But they say that she has refused to take doctor-recommended diagnostic tests unless she is released, meaning she "effectively created a medical hardship that she now relies on to seek release." The 92-year-old jurist overseeing the case against Maduro and Flores, US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, scheduled a hearing for Thursday to decide the matter. If Flores is allowed to leave jail, it could mean that the federal government would no longer have direct oversight over every aspect of her life.

Flores' doctors have recommended that she get a cardiac catheterization, a diagnostic procedure in which doctors would thread a tube through blood vessels and into her heart. Flores has been happy with the medical care she has received while incarcerated in New York, according to a person who has spoken with her. But the 69-year-old is afraid of going through the medical procedure and then waking up from anesthesia handcuffed to a bed or surrounded by dozens of other inmates, the person told Business Insider. "She's very afraid of waking up and then getting thrown into some situation that she has very little control over, and something happens," the person said.

Her lawyers are proposing that she move to a private home — the proposed location isn't disclosed in public court filings — with 24-hour monitoring from armed security teams.

The arrangements would be overseen by a firm led by Louis Milione, a former narcoterrorism special operations agent and second-in-command at the Drug Enforcement Administration. The attempt to stay in a private residence while seeking medical treatment and recovery is "an attempt to leverage her wealth to receive special treatment," prosecutors say. Prosecutors noted that judges have rejected similar moves in other high-profile cases, including in criminal cases against Sean "Diddy" Combs, Ghislaine Maxwell, and Jeffrey Epstein.

Until her capture on January 3, Flores' life looked very different. As Maduro's wife and former leader of Venezuela's legislature, she was part of the country's ruling elite. Then, US special forces descended on the fortified compound in Caracas where she and Maduro were staying, and seized the couple. They were flown to New York City to face federal charges. The former first couple of Venezuela are now living in a federal jail between a pier and a cemetery in a not-yet-gentrified Brooklyn neighborhood.

After arriving at the jail, Flores had her own cell for six weeks, according to the person who spoke with her. Afterward, she was moved to the female general population area, where according to a jail spokesperson, there are now about 35 inmates. There is a barracks-style area where beds are arranged in rows in one big room, as well as another area where they can hang out. female inmates are completely separated, and the jail doesn't offer any way for Flores and Maduro to see each other.

Fights occasionally break out between inmates, creating additional health risks for Flores, her lawyers have said in court filings.

The effort to get Maduro's wife out of jail because of her health issues is one of many side-plots that have emerged from the criminal case against the former first couple. The two won't see a jury anytime soon. Maduro and Flores face a slew of drug-trafficking and gun-running allegations. Their lawyers have only just begun what's expected to be a long series of legal challenges to the Justice Department's criminal charges. In September, their defense attorneys filed motions arguing that the couple should be entitled to sovereign immunity.

Maduro remains Venezuela's rightful head of state, and Flores holds official roles as Venezuela's first lady and as a leader of the country's legislature, they said in court filings. Maduro's 60-page brief cites the 2024 US Supreme Court decision that granted Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution. Whatever conduct American prosecutors had an issue with, the lawyers say, could be considered an "official act" as part of their government roles.

Since Maduro's capture, the country of Venezuela has asserted head-of-state immunity for Delcy Rodriguez in American court proceedings, but not for Maduro. And then there is the question of why this case is happening in the United States at all. Maduro's lawyers also say the top charge against him — engaging in a narcoterrorism conspiracy by trafficking drugs to US-designated terrorist groups, including the FARC and the Sinaloa Cartel — involves alleged actions that are beyond the reach of American courts.

It likely won't be until next year that Hellerstein will decide those motions. The Axel Springer Global Reporters Network harnesses the resources of the company's newsrooms to publish ambitious scoops, investigations, interviews, opinion pieces and analysis.

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