MIAMI (AP) – A major fugitive close to Venezuela’s socialist government has been put on a plane for extradition to the United States, where he will face money laundering charges, a senior US official confirmed Saturday.
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Alex Saab is traveling on a chartered Justice Department flight from Cape Verde, where he was arrested 16 months ago while making a stop in that country on his way to Iran for what the government of Nicolás Maduro has described as a diplomatic humanitarian mission.
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The official spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier, various media outlets in Cape Verde had reported his extradition citing unidentified sources. A public relations firm representing Saab indicated in an email that the Colombian businessman was taken from his home without notifying his lawyers.
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In a statement released in Caracas on Saturday afternoon, the Maduro government denounced “the kidnapping of the Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab by the United States government in complicity with Cape Verdean authorities, who tortured him and arbitrarily held him prisoner for 491 days without an arrest warrant or due process, thereby violating the laws of Cape Verde and the Vienna Convention ”.
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Saab’s arrival in the United States is expected to complicate relations between Washington and Caracas, potentially affecting negotiations between the Maduro government and its US-backed opponents. Such negotiations, which are in their initial stages, are taking place in Mexico.
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Caracas said in this regard in its statement that this action “also undermines the proper development of the negotiations.”
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Last month, Maduro criticized the United States for the “kidnapping” and “torture” of Saab, a previously unknown Colombian businessman whom prosecutors accuse of amassing a fortune through business on behalf of the Venezuelan government, which faces harsh sanctions. from the United States.
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The US authorities had targeted Saab for years, believing that it holds many secrets regarding the way that Maduro, the Venezuelan president’s family and his main allies diverted millions of dollars from government contracts for food and housing in the middle of a general crisis in Venezuela.
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However, his supporters, including the Maduro government and his allies Russia and Cuba, consider his detention to be illegal and maintain that Saab was a diplomatic envoy of the Venezuelan government and as such has immunity while serving official functions.
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In its statement, the Maduro government repudiated what it described as a “grave violation of human rights against a Venezuelan citizen, invested as a diplomat and representative of our country to the world. A fact that sets a dangerous precedent for international law ”.
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Such an argument failed to persuade the Constitutional Court of Cape Verde, which last month authorized his extradition after a year of having a dispute with Saab’s legal team, including former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzón and BakerHostetler, one of the law firms. largest in the United States.
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Federal prosecutors in Miami charged Saab in 2019 for money laundering linked to an alleged bribery scheme that pocketed more than $ 350 million from a Venezuelan government affordable housing project.
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Separately, Saab had been sanctioned by then-President Donald Trump’s administration for allegedly using a network of global shell companies – in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Hong Kong, Panama, Colombia and Mexico – to conceal huge contract profits. overpriced and unsolicited food obtained through bribery.
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“We hold the Cape Verdean authorities and the government of President Biden responsible for the life and integrity of Alex Saab and we reserve as a sovereign nation the actions that we will take accordingly,” the Venezuelan government said.
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The Associated Press correspondent in Caracas, Jorge Rueda, contributed to this report.
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