Venezuelan Maduro ally, deported to US

Venezuelan official Alex Saab, a Colombian-Venezuelan businessman and ally of former President Nicolas Maduro, has been deported to the United States.

Saab was arrested in Caracas in February during a joint operation by U.S. and Venezuelan authorities, according to a U.S. law enforcement official at the time.

Colombian-born Saab was previously detained in Cape Verde in 2020 and held in the USA on bribery charges. He was granted amnesty in 2023 in exchange for the release of Americans detained in Venezuela.

The Venezuelan government did not specifically say where it was deporting Alex Saab in its statement Saturday, but said its decision was based on several ongoing criminal investigations in the United States.

The Associated Press reported in February that federal prosecutors had been investigating for months Saab’s role in a bribery conspiracy involving Venezuelan government food import contracts.

Saab, 54, has made a fortune thanks to contracts with the Venezuelan government.

But the Colombian-born businessman, long described by US officials as Maduro’s “purse man”, has fallen out of favor with the country’s new leadership, which came to power after the US ousted Venezuela’s president, and may be asked to testify against his former protégé.

with AP