[Pnews] Alex Saab: A Serious Violation by the US

[Prisoner News]

resumen-english.org 
<https://www.resumen-english.org/2021/10/alex-saab-a-serious-violation-by-the-us/> 



  Alex Saab: A Serious Violation by the US

By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on October 21, 2021

<https://i0.wp.com/www.resumen-english.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/10-22-saab-angel-img.jpg?ssl=1>

Venezuelans call for Alex Saab’s freedom. photo: UM

The arbitrary extradition to the United States by the government of Cape 
Verde of Venezuelan businessman and diplomat Alex Saab, on October 16, 
is actually a kidnapping, as accused by the president of Venezuela, 
Nicolás Maduro.Saab was arrested and illegally detained on June 12, 2020 
while the plane he was flying was refueling en route from Tehran to 
Caracas. There was no international arrest warrant at that time, but 
rather a mendacious official version of the US. The warrant was issued 
by Interpol the day after the arrest and withdrawn shortly thereafter. 
In fact, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African 
States, to which Cape Verde recognizes jurisdiction, ruled in March 2021 
that Saab’s detention was illegal, since “the Interpol alert requesting 
his arrest was issued the day after his arrest” and in June of the same 
year the UN Human Rights Council asked it to refrain from extraditing 
Saab to the US while his case was being examined. Moreover, it was 
reported that the United Nations Working Group against Arbitrary 
Detention and four special rapporteurs of the organization had warned 
the kidnapping government: “the situation created by the highest 
authorities of Cape Verde would violate in a serious, unlimited and 
prolonged manner Cape Verde’s commitments to the most elementary 
principles of human rights”.

Why -especially from Washington and Bogota- has there been a huge media 
campaign against this man who they cynically and shamelessly takes for 
granted his condition of “Maduro’s henchman” and key figure of a 
“corruption network linked to the inner circle” of the Venezuelan 
president? Why was he “sanctioned” by the US Treasury Department, in 
July 2019, for having “overpriced contracts” for the construction of 
low-income housing in Venezuela, and for allowing Maduro to 
“significantly benefit” from the importation and distribution of food, 
through the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP)? In truth, 
those entities have been decisive for the fair distribution of food and 
medicines to the most vulnerable families in the face of Washington’s 
crude blockade. Why, having been born and having carried out an 
important part of his business career in Colombia, does Saab have the 
status of Venezuelan diplomat? He has told the media portal Russia Today 
how he started in 2011 his business activity in Venezuela and in what 
way he successively gained the trust of the Venezuelan government for 
conducting his business with it in the agreed time and within the 
established budget. “Although I am proud of my Barranquillero and 
Lebanese-Palestinian origin and, although in Colombia I had one of the 
largest fashion clothing manufacturing companies and more than 300 
stores throughout the country… when I founded my company, which I 
alternated with investments in construction projects, it was in 
Venezuela where…. I was able to establish my greatest business 
initiatives and make them prosper with a magnitude that made a 
difference… I am equally proud and honored to be a Venezuelan citizen 
who has been able to give back to the country and the people what they 
have given me”.

Clearly, Saab’s seriousness as a businessman over the years merited that 
Maduro entrusted him with important negotiations in Russia and Iran to 
deliver desperately needed food and medicines to the Venezuelan people, 
who are suffering from the intensified US blockade. They were so 
important that he received the category of special envoy, through which 
he was endowed with official representation and diplomatic immunity, and 
also a relative form of protection for the businessman in the face of 
the fierce persecution by Washington of all economic, commercial and 
financial operations of Venezuela and perhaps calculating an eventual 
retaliation against him, as finally happened.

Washington, with great approval from Bogota, is trying to break Saab so 
that he will slander President Maduro, something the businessman has 
assured he will not do. In crisis the slipping US hegemony tries with 
this act of force to demonstrate the power it retains.

Maduro, who has denounced physical and psychological torture against 
Saab by Cape Verde, adopted additional measures to protect him by 
appointing him ambassador to the African Union and then added him as a 
member of the Venezuelan delegation to the dialogues in Mexico between 
the Bolivarian government and the Guaido opposition. The Venezuelan 
president has also stated that the U.S. assured the latter’s 
representatives that it would not act against Saab. The rude provocation 
by Washington in violating that commitment was what motivated the 
withdrawal of Caracas from the negotiation process.

“Sooner or later, this tremendous persecution will be revealed and all 
the tricks that are being used against me will be exposed”, Saab said.

Source: La Jornada 
<https://www.jornada.com.mx/notas/2021/10/21/mundo/alex-saab-grave-atropello-de-eu/>, 
translation Resumen Latinoamericano – English
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