the federal prison where Maduro is held

O Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), the New York federal prison where Nicolás Maduro is detained, has previously housed notorious inmates such as Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs and former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernández.

Located in the borough of Brooklyn, MDC has been called “hell on Earth“. It is one of the city’s most notorious prisons, along with Rikers Island, and has been criticized for its lack of staff, crime within its facilities and harsh cell living conditions.

At New York’s only federal prison, its approximately 1,200 inmates have been awaiting trial in federal courts since the closure of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan.

Former inmate Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite associated and accomplice of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, denounced the “inhumane, cruel and degrading” conditions at the MDC and compared her cell to that of psychopath Hannibal Lecter in the film “The Silence of the Lambs”.

Another detainee, Mexico’s former Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, claimed in a letter made public by his lawyer that he had witnessed murders and stabbings.

The long list of “celebrities” was complemented in 2024 by Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, who was incarcerated along with controversial rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.

President Donald Trump’s former adviser Michael Cohen, who was also incarcerated in the penitentiary in 2020 on charges of tax evasion, among others, recalled his time in prison in light of Combs’ visit.

“(Combs) wakes up on a steel bed with a four-inch mattress, no pillow, in an 8-by-10-foot cell that I can assure you is disgusting,” the former Trump adviser said, adding that inmates are deprived of access to books during the initial period of their stay.

Currently, the alleged leader of the Sinaloa cartel, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada García, is another inmate held in the penitentiary, awaiting trial on murder and drug trafficking charges.

Temperature of -15ºC

In 2019, conditions at the federal prison sparked protests after seven days of partial power and heat cuts.

According to videos posted on social media, many inmates banged on the windows with objects, begging for help after several days in which the temperature in New York City reached -15°C. Additionally, prisoners’ lawyers reported a lack of medical services.

The 2019 incident prompted a Justice Department investigation into whether the Federal Department of Corrections had “adequate contingency plans” to address inmates’ living conditions.

Meanwhile, inmates filed a class action lawsuit, which resulted in approximately $10 million in compensation for 1,600 inmates who suffered from the cold and inhumane conditions due to the blackout.