Venezuela's former authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro complains about being mistreated from his small cell in the New York City prison he's being held in since his capture in January, according to a new report.
Spanish outlet ABC detailed that his cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn has a size of two meters by three meters. It quoted Sam Mangel, a prison consultant who knows about the facility based on conversations with inmates, who claimed that "no one would like to spend a minute" there.
Maduro, the outlet added, is kept at a special housing unit, where he is in isolation. He is allowed out three times a week for an hour in shackles and escorted by two guards. There, he can shower, use the phone, access email or go out to a small outdoor patio.
Elsewhere, ABC said that the lawyer of another Venezuelan inmate who is being held close to Maduro said he has heard him call for help at night. "I am the President of Venezuela, tell my country I've been kidnapped. Tell my country we're being mistreated here," he has reportedly said.
Prison authorities refused to provide details of Maduro's imprisonment, telling the outlet that "due to security and privacy reasons, the Bureau of Prisons does not reveal the conditions of confinement of any inmates under its custody."
Outside the prison, Maduro's successor, Delcy Rodriguez, continues to work with the Trump administration to avoid facing the same fate. In fact, the Department of Justice notified the court holding the Maduro case that it has formally recognized Rodriguez as the country's legitimate head of State.
"Maduro is an accused narco terrorist waiting trial in a U.S. federal court for his crimes," said Senior Bureau Official for Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak. He claimed that Washington's goal is achieving a "gradual process that creates conditions for a peaceful transition towards a democratically elected government."
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