Nicolás Maduro sued in US court over alleged extrajudicial killings in Venezuela
Families of five young men have filed a lawsuit against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in a US federal court, accusing him of ordering their extrajudicial killings as part of a pattern of state violence.
A 44-page complaint filed in a New York federal court alleges that Maduro ordered an elite security force called Special Action Forces (FAES) to execute the five men between 2017 and 2020. The lawsuit states that the victims were among thousands killed under Maduro's command by units including FAES, which was disbanded in 2021 after complaints of human rights abuses, including from the United Nations.
Maduro is currently in a New York jail awaiting trial on criminal charges of drug trafficking after the US military removed him from office in a raid in January. During his presidency from 2013 to 2026, he was widely accused of using political repression to cling to power.
The civil lawsuit, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, describes how FAES officers came to the victims' neighborhoods in the early morning, dressed in all black with faces covered, separated the men from their families, and shot them. Officials then fabricated narratives that the victims had "resisted authority." The lawsuit claims Maduro used FAES as a political instrument and mechanism of social control to violently suppress dissent, terrorize low-income neighborhoods, and eliminate political opposition. It adds that FAES is widely considered a "death squad" or "extermination group."
The lawsuit says a biased Venezuelan judiciary has prevented accountability for the killings. The families, whose identities are protected for safety reasons, have sued under the United States' Torture Victim Protection Act and are seeking financial compensation from Maduro. The former strongman is expected to seek immunity as a head of state. In his criminal case, where he is charged alongside his wife Cilia Flores, Maduro has declared himself a "prisoner of war" and pleaded not guilty to all four counts.
