Venezuela’s ousted president, Nicolás Maduro, is spending his time in a US prison reading religious and philosophical books. Along with the Bible, he is also reading the Quran.
In prison Maduro has also been meeting representatives of different faiths, including a priest and a rabbi. His interest in spiritual and religious matters has grown further in captivity, according to the report.
The outlet’s journalists prepared the report after speaking to six people familiar with Maduro’s life in prison. They gave information on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Maduro is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. He spends most of the day there reading. Besides religious texts, the former Venezuelan president is reading various books of philosophy.
Reading the Bible and the Quran
Reading has become Maduro’s main way of passing time in prison. He reads the Bible and the Quran regularly, and also studies other writing on religion and philosophy.
He is also in contact with the prison’s chaplains, among them a Christian priest and a rabbi, and discusses religious questions with them.
Maduro’s interest in spirituality is not new. As president he kept up ties with various religious groups. But people familiar with his situation believe his interest in religion has deepened since he was jailed.
Claim of Jewish descent
Maduro has spoken publicly in the past about Jewish ancestry. He has said he is descended from Sephardic Jews whose forebears migrated to Venezuela from the Dutch Antilles at some point in the last century.
People close to him, however, say they did not know of any special interest in Judaism before his arrest. His meeting with a rabbi in prison has brought the subject back into discussion.
Old ties with religious groups
As Venezuela’s president, Maduro tried to win the support of the country’s growing evangelical Christian population. Although he is a Catholic himself, he was close to a priest who held socialist views.
Maduro, his wife Cilia Flores and his successor Delcy Rodríguez were also followers of the late Indian spiritual guru Sathya Sai Baba. Altogether, Maduro’s interest in different faiths and spiritual philosophies goes back a long way.
Weight loss in prison
Besides reading religious books, Maduro has also changed physically in captivity. People familiar with his situation say he has lost a considerable amount of weight in prison.
Before his arrest, the 63-year-old followed the paleo diet, which is modelled on the eating habits of Stone Age humans and mainly avoids processed food.
He is unhappy with the quality and quantity of the prison food. Two people familiar with the matter said he lost weight quickly because the food is poor. He has looked much thinner in recent months than before, and he has complained about the food.
Cilia Flores in the same prison
Maduro’s wife, the former first lady Cilia Flores, is held in the same prison, but among the general population. Maduro is in a special unit, which has in the past held high-profile inmates such as the musician Sean Combs, the cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried and Luigi Mangione.
Flores’s health is of greater concern than Maduro’s. According to court documents, at the time of her arrest in January she was recovering from a hysterectomy. She was later given nitroglycerin for chest pain. She has also lost two teeth and more than 25 pounds in weight.
She was held in solitary confinement for the first three months. After she was moved into the general population, she fell ill from the effects of pepper spray used to break up a fight between inmates. Her lawyers believe she may have suffered a mild heart attack in July. She now manages only three to four hours of sleep a night.
Citing these health problems, Flores applied for release. The judge then in charge of the case, Alvin K. Hellerstein, rejected the application. After he died last month at the age of 92, a new judge, Analisa Torres, took over the case.
Awaiting trial on drug trafficking charges
The United States accuses Maduro of helping thousands of tonnes of cocaine to be smuggled into the country. He faces several other serious charges as well. The trial on these charges is due to begin next year. Maduro and his wife both say they are innocent.
On 3 January, US special forces raided the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, and seized Maduro and his wife. In the operation, carried out on the orders of US President Donald Trump, the forces overpowered Maduro’s guards and arrested the couple.
The United States had long pressed for Maduro’s removal from power. His arrest has also brought major change to Venezuela’s politics. A country once known as an adversary of the United States is now under Washington’s heavy influence.
Meanwhile, Maduro passes his days in the Brooklyn prison awaiting trial. How important religious and philosophical study has become in his life since he lost power has become a new subject of discussion.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report