On 16 October 2021, Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab was extradited to the US from the west African archipelago state of Cape Verde on bogus charges of ‘money laundering’. In June 2020, Saab was en route to Iran on a humanitarian mission to secure shipments of food, medicines and fuel on behalf of Venezuela’s socialist government when his plane stopped to refuel in Cape Verde. He was detained at the behest of the US and kept in prison until his extradition. Saab is not wanted for violating any laws in Cape Verde or Venezuela. In an investigation into Saab’s transactions with Swiss banks, the Swiss government found no evidence of money laundering. The Colombian-born businessman was first granted diplomatic immunity in 2018 when he was appointed as a Special Envoy to Russia and Iran. Following his detention in 2020, he was additionally appointed as Alternate Venezuelan ambassador to the African Union. Lawyers defending Saab point to a raft of flagrant irregularities and disrespect for international protocol:
- Saab was arrested without a warrant in a country that has no extradition treaty with the US.
- A fig-leaf Interpol warrant was issued after the arrest but subsequently dropped.
- His international legal team have repeatedly faced deportation from Cape Verde.
- He has been denied cancer treatment and reportedly tortured.
- His rendition to the US was undertaken in secret, without waiting for a final extradition decision and the necessary documentation.
Now, a US judge has quashed the majority of charges against Saab, retaining only that of conspiring to launder money. If convicted, Saab faces a 20-year prison sentence.
Why is the US persecuting Saab?
Forbes magazine refers to Alex Saab as ‘the key that unlocks the Venezuelan monetary mystery – that is, how a country facing sanctions from the US, the UK and the European Union is still able to export things like gold and oil’. Saab has been central to finding ways around the illegal US blockade of Venezuela which is decimating the economy. Third party sanctions now attack other nations and companies that trade with Venezuela, even targeting shipping companies and their insurers. In August 2020, the US seized four tankers sent by Iran, selling off the fuel and goods on board. Venezuela’s GDP has been slashed by 65% since 2012, leaving 2.5 million severely food insecure with 7.5 million relying on government food boxes. Saab, a businessman who holds Venezuelan citizenship, held several contracts with the Venezuelan state which included securing goods for the food programme. Forbes considers Saab to be ‘a key cog in Venezuela’s national money machine…a key fixer on the country’s housing and food programs, juggling contacts, companies and bank accounts around the world.’ The information Saab holds would make him a valuable asset for the US if they could persuade him to defect.
His arrest and extradition were met with international condemnation. The UN Office of Human Rights demanded that Cape Verde account for not only for the legal basis of their actions against Saab, but the deterioration of his health while in detention, his risk of torture in the United States, and the violation of his diplomatic immunity. Their letter went unanswered.
The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Cape Verde is a member, twice ruled Saab’s detention unlawful, demanding the extradition process be cancelled and Saab released and compensated. Cape Verde defied the ruling. Describing the small west African country as as ‘an important partner’ which ‘prioritised relations with the US and Europe’, shortly after Saab’s arrest the US State Department donated $1.5m to Cape Verde’s private sector.
As pointed out by New African magazine, Saab’s case is a ‘litmus test for Africa’s sovereignty’, determining ‘whether or not “superpower impunity” or “extraterritorial judicial overreach” can override international law, regional sovereignty and human rights guarantees.’ If the arrest took place without the Interpol red notice, who ordered it? If ECOWAS ruled the arrest and extradition to be unlawful, recognised Saab’s diplomatic immunity and invoked the UN charter, who gave the Cape Verde Supreme Court overriding power? If Saab’s extradition was justified by the US on spurious allegations of a connection to narco-trafficking, where are the extradition papers for Colombian President Ivan Duque, who has well documented links to the drug trade? Or, for that matter, Honduran ‘narco-president’ Juan Orlando Hernández, who is known to be in cahoots with his brother Tony, recently sentenced to life in prison by a New York Court for his involvement in drug-trafficking.
The reality is that the case against Saab has nothing to do with phoney concerns about corruption. It is a calculated strategy of law-fare, aimed at the political destabilisation and economic asphyxiation of Venezuela for daring to oppose US interests in its own backyard. It also had the calculated purpose of derailing the negotiations taking place between the PSUV government and opposition in Mexico ahead of Venezuela’s ‘mega’ election on 21 November (see ‘Mega elections see gains for socialist forces’, this page) Three rounds of talks had made significant strides in commitments to recover Venezuela’s frozen assets, challenge sanctions and secure backing for the broadest opposition participation in elections since 2015. Saab’s extradition took place the hours before the fourth round was due to start. In response the PSUV government suspended the talks.
Although the US ostensibly supported the Mexico negotiations, promising to ‘review sanctions’ if ‘meaningful progress’ was made, Saab’s extradition illustrates that this was just lip-service. The opposition at the negotiating table was fractured and weak. Nearly three years of US-backed failed coup attempts and farce under self-declared ‘interim president’ Juan Guaido had led the majority of the opposition to abandon its electoral boycott in the hope of winning some concessions from the PSUV government in return for sanctions relief. The so-called ‘moderate’ opposition had already broken from Guaido’s leadership and participated in National Assembly elections in 2020. Saab’s extradition left the ‘Democratic Unity’ (MUD) coalition committed to elections with little leverage. Widely considered a busted flush, Guaido’s posturing as ‘interim president’ nonetheless provides cover for imperialist countries to refuse to recognise President Maduro and freeze the country’s assets including the CITGO oil subsidiary in the US and over $2bn of gold in the Bank of England.
Behind the scenes the powerful counter-revolutionary Cuban and Venezuelan lobbies in Florida have condemned the opposition for negotiating with Maduro and committing to elections. Venezuelan analyst Ociel Ali Lopez points out ‘It was a Florida court that filed for Saab’s extradition. Florida is precisely the place where Cuban and Venezuelan lobbies have enough pull to swing a US election… concerning the negotiations in Venezuela, one can see that, for now, their main enemy is not Maduro but the opposition that opted for the political and electoral path. The lobbies have pounced on these sectors, looking to sabotage any attempt at dialogue and imploding it with the recent extradition.’ The consequences for the balance of forces will become clear after the dust from November’s elections settles.
Venezuela has launched an international campaign to free Alex Saab, who has declared his loyalty to the nation. In his letter on the day of his extradition he wrote: ‘I will face the trial with total dignity and asserting my diplomatic immunity as a servant of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela since April 2018. I wish to make it clear that I have nothing with which to collaborate with the United States, that I have not committed any crime in the US or in any other country, that I will not lie to benefit the US against President Nicolas Maduro or his government; a government totally dedicated to the welfare of its people and which is going through an inhumane blockade by the United States that wants to take over the wealth of the country…let us not allow ourselves to be defeated’.
The detention and extradition of Saab is an outrageous violation of international law and a further attack by imperialism on Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution. The Revolutionary Communist Group fully supports the campaign to free Alex Saab, adding our voices to the international campaign – Hands off Venezuela! No sanctions! No coup!
To sign the international petition to free Alex Saab go to bit.ly/FreeAlexSaabVZ.
https://afgj.org/free-alex-saab
Sam McGill
