In the early hours of January 3, the United States’ Delta Force abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from the presidential residence in the capital, Caracas. The operation, which was paired with attacks on the Venezuelan capital that killed at least 40 people, according to Venezuelan officials, extracted the country’s first couple to New York in the US, where they are expected to be put on trial as early as Monday. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list But who is Cilia Flores, Venezuela’s so-called “first combatant”? Early life Flores, 69, was born on October 15, 1956, in Tinaquillo in central Venezuela. She grew up in areas of western Caracas that CNN has described as “working-class neighbourhoods”. She graduated from Universidad Santa Maria in Caracas as a lawyer specialising in labour and criminal law. Her rise to prominence came when she led the team that provided legal assistance to military leader Hugo Chavez in 1992, after he attempted to overthrow then-Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez. Flores reportedly helped secure Chavez’s …