Deposed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, accused of working with drug cartels to facilitate the shipment of thousands of tons of cocaine into the US, has an Indian connection.
According to an NDTV report, Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores, who was also seized by the US during a military operation, were followers of the popular Indian godman Sathya Sai Baba.
It was Flores who introduced Sathya Sai Baba to Maduro before their marriage.
In 2005, the two reportedly visited the ashram of the godman in the Puttaparthi area of Andhra Pradesh to meet him.
An image from the visit showed the duo seated at the feet of Sathya Sai Baba.
According to media reports, there was a portrait of the Indian godman displayed in the private office of Maduro alongside Hugo Chavez and Simón Bolivar.
“When he visited Prashantinilayam in 2005 along with the minister of education, Baba gave an audience to him and his family. He was then the minister of foreign affairs,” the Sathya Sai Central Trust had said in a statement, according to media reports.
When the spiritual leader passed away in 2011, Maduro, who was then the foreign minister of Venezuela, urged Venezuela's National Assembly to pass a condolence resolution, recognising the godman's “spiritual contribution to humanity.”
On November 23, 2025, Maduro commemorated the centenary of the godman with an official public statement that said, “I always remember him when we met… May the wisdom of this great teacher continue to enlighten us.”
The US accuses Maduro and his wife of ordering kidnappings, beatings and murders “against those who owed them drug money or otherwise undermined their drug trafficking operation.” That includes the killing of a local drug boss in Caracas, according to the indictment.
