Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, who has been unjustly imprisoned in the United States since October 2021, was finally released from US custody on December 20. Saab was detained in Cape Verde a year after being sanctioned by the US in July 2019. He was extradited to the United States on October 16, 2021 and was held in prison in Miami to await trial.
Saab was sanctioned amid intensified US attacks against Venezuela, which was attempting to push forward multiple options to advance a coup d’état against the democratically elected government of Nicolás Maduro.
“The Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela celebrates the release of the Venezuelan diplomat Alex Nain Saab Morán from an illegal and unjust kidnapping to which he was subjected for more than 3 years in violation of his human rights and international law,” said Yvan Gil, the Minister for People’s Power for Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, in response to Saab’s release. “The release of diplomat Alex Saab constitutes a victory for Bolivarian Peace Diplomacy that demonstrates that exchange, dialogue and diplomacy, and not coercion and aggression, are the best ways to reach understanding between dissimilar positions.”
Saab was illegally detained in Cape Verde in June 2020, by Cape Verdean authorities at the request of the US authorities. At the time, he was serving as a Special Envoy for Venezuela. The US presented eight charges against Saab, seven of which were later dropped. The only remaining charge, one of money laundering, carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. He remained imprisoned in Cape Verde for over a year, where his family doctor observed his deteriorating health as well as signs of torture.
Despite the obvious signs of torture, Saab was extradited to the US on October 16, 2021 where he remained imprisoned till December 20, 2023.
Following news of his release, notorious sanctions supporter US Senator Bob Menendez, who himself has been hounded by corruption charges this year stated: “Given the Maduro regime’s continued actions, it’s unconscionable that the Biden administration struck a deal in complete secrecy that will see one of Maduro’s most important allies released from prison…We cannot continue to give up tools at our disposal to hold the regime accountable.”
Since his detention in 2020, various anti-imperialist groups have been campaigning for his release, including the US-based anti-war organization CODEPINK. “Alex Saab should never have been in prison, but his release shows us in this somber moment in history that diplomacy and negotiation works better than coercion and war,” Michelle Ellner, the Latin America Campaign coordinator for CODEPINK, told Peoples Dispatch.
Upon his arrival to Venezuela, Saab participated in a press conference with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He stated, “Today the miracle of liberty, the miracle of justice has come true thanks to you Mr. President for your perseverance…I feel proud of serving the Venezuelan people and serve this government, a humane government, a loyal government, a government that does not abandon, an a government that never gives up and people that will never give up.”
