{"id":111848,"date":"2026-01-05T21:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T21:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111848\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T21:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T21:52:08","slug":"heres-what-we-know-about-the-houston-attorney-representing-nicolas-maduros-wife-in-federal-court-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/111848\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what we know about the Houston attorney representing Nicol\u00e1s Maduro\u2019s wife in federal court \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Nicolas<\/a><\/p>\n

AP Photo\/Stefan Jeremiah<\/p>\n

An armored vehicle carrying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrives at Manhattan Federal Court, Monday, Jan. 5, 2026, in New York.<\/p>\n

A Houston-based attorney is representing Cilia Flores, the wife of ousted Venezuela President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, who was captured by the U.S.<\/a> during a military operation in Venezuela over the weekend. The couple, along with Maduro\u2019s son and other Venezuelan officials, face criminal charges in New York.<\/p>\n

Mark Donnelly of the Parker Sanchez & Donnelly law firm in Houston is representing Flores against the charges of drug trafficking and possession of machine guns and destructive devices, according to federal court records in the Southern District of New York.<\/p>\n

Flores and Maduro appeared in court Monday in New York, where both pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. ABC News reported<\/a> that Donnelly was next to Flores in court and that Flores told Judge Alvin Hellerstein that she is “completely innocent.”<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Hello, Houston!<\/a> daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n

“We look forward to reviewing and challenging the evidence the government has,” Donnelly wrote in an email Monday to Houston Public Media. “While we would love to present our side now, we will wait to do so in court at the appropriate time. The first lady is aware that there is a long road ahead and is prepared.”<\/p>\n

Donnelly did not provide details about how he became involved in the defense of Flores in a case that has international political implications. <\/p>\n

Donnelly\u2019s involvement is the latest Houston-area connection<\/a> to the escalated tension between Maduro and U.S. President Donald Trump. The Trump administration in December seized an oil tanker near the coast of Venezuela and sent it to the Galveston area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Venezuela's<\/a><\/p>\n

Ariana Cubillos\/AP<\/p>\n

Venezuela\u2019s President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores wave to supporters at the presidential palace in Caracas in 2018 after election officials declared his victory.<\/p>\n

Six U.S.-based executives for Citgo, a Houston-based company that is a subsidiary of state-run Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), were imprisoned by Maduro\u2019s regime during Trump\u2019s first stint in the White House in 2017. The men were subsequently released in 2022<\/a> as part of a prisoner swap between Maduro and the administration of President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n

Houston-based Chevron is the only American oil producer still operating in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

During a Saturday news conference about Maduro\u2019s capture, Trump mentioned the case of Jocelyn Nungaray<\/a>, a 12-year-old Houston girl who was murdered in 2024, allegedly by two men from Venezuela.<\/p>\n

The Houston area also is home to the third-largest population of Venezuelan immigrants in the U.S., according to Migration Policy Institute<\/a>. Some of them gathered in Katy over the weekend to celebrate Maduro\u2019s capture, while others in the Houston region have rejected U.S. involvement in Venezuela.<\/p>\n

RELATED: Celebrations, protests across Houston after U.S. operation in Venezuela<\/a><\/p>\n

Donnelly is an attorney who specializes in white-collar criminal defense, according to his profile on the law firm’s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

Parker Sanchez & Donnelly PLLC<\/p>\n

Lawyer Mark Donnelly of the Parker Sanchez & Donnelly law firm is representing Cilia Flores against the charges of drug trafficking and possession of machine guns and destructive devices.<\/p>\n

A Houston native, Donnelly previously worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as the senior advisor to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, according to the law firm. He also ran the Southern District’s fraud division for more than two years. <\/p>\n

Before joining the DOJ, Donnelly was a prosecutor with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office for eight years, prosecuting cases ranging from DWI to capital murder and ultimately becoming a chief felony prosecutor. <\/p>\n

In 2023, Donnelly was among the lawyers who assisted in the Texas House’s investigation into Attorney General Ken Paxton before his impeachment trial<\/a> in the Texas Senate, where Paxton was acquitted. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AP Photo\/Stefan Jeremiah An armored vehicle carrying Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores arrives at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49215,2441,56,49601,58,57,4104,66,49602,4491,223,49603,287,49604,49105],"class_list":["post-111848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-cilia-flores","tag-court","tag-houston","tag-houston-attorneys","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-international","tag-local","tag-mark-donnelly","tag-national","tag-news","tag-parker-sanchez-donnelly","tag-politics","tag-venezuelan-first-lady-cilia-flores","tag-venezuelan-president-nicolas-maduro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}