On 7 April, days before the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, Flores, along with Guillermo García Ponce and Freddy Bernal shared plans of using the Bolivarian Circles as a paramilitary force to end opposition marches and defend Chávez in Miraflores Palace by organizing them into brigades.

[3] Upon Maduro's victory in the 2013 presidential election over Henrique Capriles, Cilia Flores became Venezuela's First Lady, a position that had been vacant since 2003.

As First Lady, Flores ran for a seat in the National Assembly in Venezuela's 2015 parliamentary elections as a candidate for the Great Patriotic Pole.

[10] Flores responded to the reporters who shared the nepotism allegations stating it was part of a smear campaign, calling them "mercenaries of the pen".

Gavidia Flores spent most of his time in the United States, though he also took chartered flights to France, Germany, Malta and Spain.

[15] The incident happened at a time when multiple high-ranking members of the Venezuelan government were being investigated for their involvement of drug trafficking.

[15] On 18 November 2016, Flores' two nephews were found guilty of trying to ship drugs into the United States so they could "obtain a large amount of cash to help their family stay in power".

[25] The companies, headed by various members of Flores' family and recently created, were sanctioned for allegedly laundering money.

[4] The two had been in a romantic relationship since the 1990s when Flores was Hugo Chávez's lawyer following the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts[32] and were married in July 2013 months after Maduro became president.