Maduro is reading the Quran and the Bible in prison, and is also meeting with members of the clergy.

Bangla Press Desk : Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is spending his time in a U.S. prison reading books on religion and philosophy. He also regularly meets with religious figures, including a Jewish leader. Additionally, he has lost a significant amount of weight during his incarceration.
The 63-year-old Maduro is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York. This information comes from six individuals familiar with his time in custody, as reported by the American newspaper *The New York Times*.

According to the report, Maduro spends much of his free time in prison reading. His reading material includes the Bible, the Holy Quran, and various other religious and philosophical texts. He has also met with religious service providers at the facility, including a Christian priest and a Jewish leader.
Maduro has long held an interest in spiritual matters. He has even publicly spoken about his Jewish ancestry, claiming to be a descendant of a Sephardic Jewish community that migrated to Venezuela from the Dutch Antilles in the last century. However, those close to him note that he showed little interest in Judaism prior to his arrest.

During his presidency, Venezuela faced a severe food crisis. He also faces allegations of ordering the torture of detainees—including U.S. citizens—in his efforts to retain power.

While in office, Maduro sought to gain the support of Venezuela’s rapidly growing Evangelical Christian population. Although he is a Catholic himself, he once maintained a close relationship with a priest who adhered to socialist ideology. Furthermore, along with his wife, Cilia Flores, and his successor, Delcy Rodríguez, he was a follower of the late Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba.

The Brooklyn detention center currently houses approximately 1,300 inmates. The facility has long been the subject of criticism due to various issues, including incidents of violence and staff shortages. Maduro is being held in a section of the prison that has previously housed high-profile inmates, including musician Sean Combs, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried, and Luigi Mangione.

Maduro’s trial is scheduled to begin next year. He faces multiple charges, including allegations of facilitating the trafficking of thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States. His wife, Cilia Flores, is also named in the same case. Both have pleaded not guilty.

On January 3, U.S. special forces conducted a military operation in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, to apprehend Maduro and his wife. Carried out under the orders of President Donald Trump, the operation involved neutralizing Maduro’s security detail before taking the couple into custody.