OnInternational Working Womens Day in 2025, Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro, read a poem she wrote highlighting the historic role played by Latin American women in the fight against imperialism.
By Medea Benjamin and Michelle Ellner
Were not flowers the wind can pluck,
were the roots of rebel and loyal land,
were grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters;
we are women.
Our blood pulses with the Manuelas,
Luisas, Josefas, Juanas, Cecilias,
Apacuanas, Bartolinas, Eulalias,
Martas, Anas Maras, Barbaritas
and so many others whose legacy inspires,
commits, and strengthens us
to continue walking and traveling our path.
And in our hands and chests
a light is on that nobody will ever turn off:
love, peace and liberty.
- Cilia Flores,International Working Womens Day 2025
One year later, she languishes in a cell in New York City, having been dragged out of her room and kidnapped by U.S. forces on the January 3 attack on Venezuela. The first images after her abduction showed her face bruised. We later learned she had broken ribs, 23 stitches in her forehead, and deteriorating health inside U.S. custody.
Flores is no ordinary first lady. She first rose to prominence in 1992 as a defense lawyer for a group of Venezuelan military officers who rose up against the government of Carlos Andrs Prez, which had massacred thousands of people in the Caracazo of 1989nationwide riots following the imposition of neoliberal austerity measures. Key among those officers was Hugo Chvez, the founder of the Bolivarian Revolution.
In 1993, Cilia founded the Bolivarian Circle of Human Rights and aligned herself with Chvezs revolutionary movement. In 2000, having helped Chvez win consecutive presidential elections, she was elected to the legislature. By 2006, she became the president of the National Assembly, the first woman in Venezuelas history to occupy the post. Flores held important positions in the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and became the countrys Solicitor General in 2012, a post she left to run Nicols Maduros presidential campaign after President Chvezs passing.
Cilia married Nicols, her longtime partner, following the election. Feeling that the title of first lady could not capture her importance to the Bolivarian Revolution, her husband dubbed her the primera combatiente, or first combatant.
After working behind the scenes as a key advisor to President Maduro, she ran for election to the National Assembly and won in 2015, 2020, and 2025.
Today, she faces charges of conspiracy to import cocaine, along with possession of machine guns and destructive devices. The charges are absurd.
In the early 1990s, back when Venezuela was a key ally of the United States,over 50%of the worlds cocaine was trafficked through the country. By 2025, as Venezuela was considered an unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States, that number was down to5%. Trumps rhetoric of Venezuela flooding the U.S. with cocaine, and his constant conflation of cocaine with fentanyl (which is neither trafficked through nor produced in Venezuela), has no basis in reality.
Now that the Trump administration controls Venezuelas oil trade, the rhetoric on drugs has flipped. Following a visit to Venezuela, the head of U.S. Southern Command touted a new counternarcotics cooperation agreement. Was the abduction of Nicols and Cilia sufficient to end whatever alleged narcotics operation the Venezuelan government was accused of running? Its more likely that such operations never existed in the first place. The allegations of drug trafficking served not only to discredit the Venezuelan government and its leaders but also paved the way for the January 3 attack.
Cilia Flores is one of the most prominent political prisoners in the world, yet most womens rights organizations have not said a word in her defense. She is a sitting member of Venezuelas National Assembly and played an instrumental role in the movement that greatly expanded democratic, economic, and social rights in the country.
Cilia stands with Palestine. In a November 2023conference in Turkey, she said, We are witnessing a genocide We see the victims in Gaza. We see the death of children, women, the elderly, and civilians. We see civilian victims coming out of their destroyed homes, but unable to leave the city because they are in an open-air prison.
Cilia brought feminism to the Bolivarian Revolution. On International Working Womens Day in 2023, she helped launch a social mission aimed at protecting women from the worst of the economic war.
Little did she know that the next scenario would be a prison cell in the United States. Out of solidarity with Cilia, with Venezuelan women in general, we must make it our cause to fight for her freedom.
Recalling her beautiful poem above, today our blood pulses with Cilia.
Medea Benjamin is co-founder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK: Women for Peace. She is the co-author, with Nicolas J.S. Davies, of War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict, available from OR Books in November 2022. Other books include, "Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran" (2018); "Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.-Saudi Connection" (2016); "Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control" (2013); "Don't Be Afraid Gringo: A Honduran Woman Speaks from the Heart" (1989), and (with Jodie Evans) "Stop the Next War Now" (2005).
Michelle Ellner is a Latin America campaign coordinator of CODEPINK. She was born in Venezuela and holds a bachelors degree in languages and international affairs from the University La Sorbonne Paris IV, in Paris. After graduating, she worked for an international scholarship program out of offices in Caracas and Paris and was sent to Haiti, Cuba, The Gambia, and other countries for the purpose of evaluating and selecting applicants.
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