Venezuela Expels Maduro Ally Alex Saab to US Again
Caracas: Former Venezuelan industry minister Alex Saab, a close ally of deposed president Nicolas Maduro, was deported to the United States for the second time on Saturday, Venezuelan officials said in a statement.
“The deportation measure was taken taking into account that the aforementioned Colombian citizen was involved in the commission of various crimes in the United States, as is known, known and reported by the public,” the statement said. expressions were used.
Saab, a Colombian-born businessman, became close to the Venezuelan government in the final years of the 1999-2013 presidency of ardent leftist Hugo Chavez and later ran a vast import network for the Maduro administration.
He was first arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 over allegations of money laundering and corruption and extradited to the United States the following year, but was released in 2023 as part of a prisoner exchange with Venezuela.
Maduro appointed Saab to his cabinet the following year, but shortly after the United States captured Maduro in a raid in Caracas last January, interim president Delcy Rodriguez suspended him from all his duties.
Although extradition of a Venezuelan citizen is technically prohibited under the constitution, the country’s immigration agency determined that Saab was a Colombian citizen and ordered his “deportation” to the United States.
