Maduro Studies Bible and Quran, Meets Clergy in Brooklyn Jail

Nicolás Maduro is spending most of his time in a New York detention center reading religious texts and meeting prison chaplains as he waits to stand trial, according to people familiar with his circumstances cited by The New York Times.

The Times reported on November 8 that the former Venezuelan president, held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, “has embarked on a journey of the spirit.” The newspaper said he “spends most of his time reading, including the Bible and the Quran.”

Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were taken to New York after a U.S. operation in Caracas on January 3 and have remained in federal custody while the case proceeds. The Times focused on his jail routine rather than on new legal filings.

He has also met with prison chaplains, “including a priest and a rabbi,” the Times reported, noting a longstanding interest in spirituality.

Jail Conditions and Weight Loss

While in jail, Maduro “has also lost a lot of weight,” people familiar with his time there told the newspaper. It said he “has been notably thinner and complaining about food in recent months.”

“Inadequate food quality in prison appears to have quickened his weight loss,” two people familiar with his eating habits told the Times. The report did not present an independent medical assessment of his health.

Maduro has been held at the Brooklyn facility since U.S. forces captured him in Venezuela in January and flew him to New York to face federal charges. He has pleaded not guilty and told a Manhattan court he is innocent. Clash Report has also covered a later dispute in which his lawyer said the United States blocked Venezuela from paying for his defense.

What the Times Established

The Times account, by Anatoly Kurmanaev, Jonah E. Bromwich and Tyler Pager, relies on people familiar with Maduro’s jail routine rather than on comments from Maduro himself or from federal jail authorities quoted in the excerpts reviewed here. The White House and the Bureau of Prisons were not described as confirming the reading list or the clergy visits.

Those details go beyond earlier public accounts that focused mainly on Bible reading. The Times report is the source for the claim that Maduro is also reading the Quran in jail and that the clergy he has seen include both a priest and a rabbi.

The newspaper did not describe the substance of those meetings, and it did not say whether they were pastoral visits, legal or consular discussions, or something else.