A relative of Maduro extradited to the United States, ire of Caracas
Colombian businessman accused of money laundering for Venezuelan power, Alex Saab was extradited on Saturday by Cape Verde to the United States.
A tag calling for freedom for Alex Saab in the streets of Caracas.
AFP
Alex Saab, a businessman close to Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and accused of money laundering was extradited on Saturday from Cape Verde to the United States, which sparked the anger of Caracas, who suspended his participation in the dialogue with the ‘opposition.
Considered an important intermediary of Venezuelan power, Alex Saab “is on the plane en route to the United States,” said a source within his legal team. He is supposed to “make his first judicial hearing Monday, October 18” in a Florida court, the US Department of Justice said in a statement, confirming this extradition.
The Colombian businessman, 49, and his partner Alvaro Pulido are accused in the United States of being at the head of a vast network which allowed the socialist leader Nicolás Maduro and his regime to hijack for their benefit food aid to Venezuela.
They are believed to have transferred some $ 350 million (roughly 323 million francs) from Venezuela to accounts they controlled in the United States and other countries. They face up to 20 years in prison. Alex Saab, who also has Venezuelan nationality and a Venezuelan diplomatic passport, was indicted in July 2019 in Miami for money laundering, and was arrested during a plane stopover in Cape Verde, off the coast of the ‘West Africa, in June 2020.
Venezuelan diplomatic passport
“All that we will know about Alex Saab and the great corruption at the highest level of power in Venezuela will be partly thanks to the justice” of Cape Verde, “who resisted the pressures”, welcomed Roberto Deniz, journalist from Armando. info and case specialist, who has high expectations of Alex Saab’s trial in the United States.
“Never” Caracas “had struggled so hard for someone. What explains why we move heaven and earth for him? It can reveal things about the arrangements, the circulation of funds, the additional costs… It was the linchpin of the Maduro regime’s affairs with the allied countries, ”he recently told AFP.
The extradition of Saab by Cape Verde, which had agreed to arrest him, seemed inevitable after yet another court decision on September 7 and more than two years of proceedings.
“Extradition is illegal”
“We have been informed that Alex Saab had been put on a United States Department of Justice plane and sent to this country,” said Jose Manuel Pinto Monteiro, one of his attorneys in Cape Verde. “Extradition is illegal because the procedure was not yet final. Extradition was therefore agreed between the Ministry of Justice of Cape Verde, the Constitutional Court and the Embassy of the United States outside the law, ”said Pinto Monteiro.
The extradition sparked the ire of Caracas. “Our delegation announces that it is suspending its participation at the negotiating and dialogue table. We will not attend the (fourth) round which was to begin on October 17 in Mexico City, in protest of the brutal aggression (…) against Alex Saab ”, according to the text read on television by the President of Parliament Jorge Rodriguez, head of delegation of power.
Alex Saab had been appointed as a member of the delegation of power for the previous round in September. The members of this delegation had held up photos of him in Mexico City.
“Responsible for hunger and the humanitarian crisis”
Power and opposition have started negotiations since August. The government wants an abolition of the sanctions imposed by the countries which do not recognize the election of President Maduro. The opposition, which has broken with its boycott strategy (presidential 2018 and legislative 2020), wants free and transparent elections for the regional election of November 21, but especially the presidential election of 2024.
Opponent Julio Borges told AFP that with extradition begins “the trial of someone who stole millions of dollars from Venezuelans, who is directly responsible for hunger and the crisis. humanitarian ”in Venezuela.
Without there being any official link, the six former executives of Citgo, the United States subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, were returned to prison on Sunday, AFP learned from one of their lawyers. Sentenced to 8 to 13 years for corruption in November 2020, they had been placed under house arrest in April, which was then perceived as a gesture of goodwill by President Maduro towards Washington, which has repeatedly demanded their release.
Iván Duque, the Colombian president, one of the main political opponents of Caracas, welcomed on Twitter the extradition, speaking of “victory in the fight against drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption that the dictatorship of Nicolás Maduro favored ”.
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