Life
Flores with Maduro: the “first combatant”. Alfredo Lasry/Getty
Venezuela’s Lady Macbeth
Since the spectacular capture of Nicolás Maduro last weekend, says Alonso Moleiro in El País, little attention has been paid to the arrest of the Venezuelan strongman’s wife, Cilia Flores. The first lady, or “first combatant” as she prefers to be known, has long been one of the most powerful and influential figures in the nation’s politics. Raised poor in a mud-brick shack, Flores rose to public prominence in 1992 when, as an ambitious young lawyer, she visited Hugo Chávez after he had been jailed for a failed coup attempt and offered to represent him. After successfully securing his release in 1994, she became a trusted part of his inner circle and “one of the leading voices of the Chavista cause”.
Flores met Maduro through their respective closeness to Chávez, who gave them jobs when he took office in 1999. Flores later succeeded Maduro as president of the National Assembly. The first woman to hold the position, she immediately began to consolidate power, appointing some 40 of her relatives to public posts and facilitating her own – and her close associates’ – “extravagant spending and luxurious lifestyles”. Her two nephews, who were regularly seen speeding through Caracas in Ferraris, became known as the “narco nephews” in 2015 after they were convicted of smuggling 800kg of cocaine into the US on a private jet. Flores has since been sanctioned by several nations, accused of conspiring to undermine democracy and of having ties to some of the government’s “most high-profile corruption cases”. Despite recent attempts to present a more palatable persona, including a TV show called En familia con Cilia, many view her as a Latina Lady Macbeth. As the former head of the Venezuelan intelligence agency, Manuel Cristopher Figuera, said in 2020: “Flores pulls the strings.”
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Property
THE HIGHLANDS HOME This old stone croft house sits within the vast Cairngorms national park in Scotland, says The Guardian. On the ground floor are a kitchen and dining room, a living room with a woodburner, and a large bedroom. On the first floor are two further bedrooms, one of which is en-suite, and a shower room. A bothy provides another double bedroom and an eight-person bunk room as well as two family bathrooms. Outside is a large deck with a hot tub, barbecue and outdoor dining area, along with a firepit and a sauna. Nethy Bridge village is a five-minute drive. £745,000. Click on the image to see the listing.
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