Image does not show Cilia Flores on trial in an American courtroom
- Published on January 22, 2026 at 09:01
- 5 min read
- By Paula CABESCU, AFP Romania, AFP Nigeria
- Translation and adaptation Samad UTHMAN
After being captured by US special forces, Venezuela's deposed president Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores appeared before a New York court on January 5, 2026, where they pleaded not guilty to multiple charges. An image circulating on social media in various languages purportedly shows Flores in court with a black eye and a bandaged forehead. But the image was likely generated using artificial intelligence. While Flores did appear in court with bandages on her face, sketches, media photos, and videos from the day show her with blonde hair and wearing a different outfit.
"The woman in this photo is Cilia Flores, the wife of Venezuela's president, who was brought to court in this manner by US authorities and human rights defenders. Those who call on the US to protect women's rights should bear this image in mind. If the same thing had happened to Donald Trump's wife, human rights activists around the world would have reacted strongly," reads the caption of a Facebook post shared on January 8, 2026.
Shared more than 400 times, the post includes an image of a woman sitting behind a microphone. She is seen wearing glasses, a dark jacket over a red top, a bandage on her forehead, and visible bruising on her left cheek.
The same image was shared elsewhere on Facebook with similar claims in English, Spanish, French, Bulgarian, Greek, Thai and Hindi.
American forces seized Maduro and Flores during a military operation in Caracas on January 3, 2026, and flew them to the United States to face trial. Trump subsequently declared that the US was “in charge” and intended to take control of Venezuela’s vast oil reserves (archived here and here).
Maduro and Flores made their first appearance before a federal judge in New York on January 5, where both pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking and other charges. They were remanded in custody, and their next hearing was set for March 17, 2026 (archived here and here).
However, the photo circulating online does not match verified images of Flores. Notably, photography was not permitted in the courtroom during the January 5 hearing.
Only sketches
Media access to the courtroom was restricted during the hearing, with only courtroom sketches of the pair released and distributed by news agencies, including AFP (archived here).
The sketches show Maduro and Flores wearing blue and orange prison uniforms. Both are also depicted wearing headsets for translation during the proceedings, a detail absent from the viral image.
Crucially, Flores is shown with blonde hair, not the long dark-brown hair she appears to have in the viral photo. An AFP report also described Flores as having "tied up blonde hair" during her court appearance. Unlike in the viral photo, she is not shown wearing glasses.
Several media outlets reported that Flores wore bandages on her forehead and near her eye, due to injuries her lawyer said were sustained during her capture (archived here and here).
A close-up of the courtroom sketch appears to show the bandaging on Flores' face, as does a sketch from a different artist released by the Associated Press (AP) news agency (archived here).
While no official photographs of the couple were released from inside the courtroom, several media outlets published images of Maduro and Flores being transported to the court, including photographs from Getty Images (archived here and here).
These photos show Flores with her blonde hair tied back and what appears to be a bruise on her forehead.
Additionally, recent archived images of Flores on the AFP wire also show the Venezuelan first lady with blonde hair and facial features that do not match those of the woman in the viral image. Below is an example of an AFP photo of the couple in January 2025.
Another sign that the image is not genuine is that no credible media outlet has published it. Given the high-profile nature of the case and intense international scrutiny, any authentic courtroom photograph would have been carried by major news organisations.
AI traces
AFP Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on the image. The earliest appearance we identified was a Turkish-language Facebook post from January 6, a day after the initial court appearance.
No source is given for the image in the caption, another clue that the picture did not originate at the time of the hearing. AFP Fact Check contacted the user for comment, but they have yet to respond.
The image also contains visual inconsistencies. The woman in the viral image appears to be wearing mismatched earrings, and the bandage on her forehead is unrealistically placed, covering a section of her hair, rather than being positioned only over the wound.
AFP Fact Check ran the image through several AI image detectors and received mixed results. It's important to note that such tools do not consistently produce definitive results.
Analysis of the image using InVID-WeVerify, a tool developed in collaboration with AFP, produced inconclusive results.
In contrast, Hive Moderation's AI detection tool said the image was 99.7% likely to "contain AI-generated or deepfake content".
Other fact-checking organisations have also debunked the image; see here, here, and here, likewise concluding that the image of the brown-haired woman is not authentic and was likely created using AI tools.
Other AFP fact-checks related to the US military operation in Venezuela and the arrest of Maduro can be found here.
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