Venezuela halts talks after Maduro ally Alex Saab is extradited to U.S.
MIAMI >> Venezuela’s government said Saturday it would halt negotiations with the country’s opposition in retaliation for the extradition the U.S. of a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro wanted on money-laundering charges.
Jorge Rodríguez, who has been heading the government’s delegation in talks that started in August, said his team wouldn’t travel to Mexico City for the next scheduled round of talks, although he stopped short of saying the government was abandoning the talks altogether.
The announcement came hours after businessman Alex Saab was put on a U.S.-bound plane in Cape Verde after failing in a 16-month fight to prevent his extradition to the U.S. to face money-laundering charges in Miami. Saab was arrested in the African archipelago while making a stop on the way to Iran for what Maduro’s government later described as a diplomatic humanitarian mission.
Rodriguez, standing in front of a giant sign reading “Free Alex Saab,” called his arrest an illegal “aggression” by the U.S., which has been pushing for years for Maduro’s removal.
Adding to the intrigue, Venezuelan security forces on Saturday picked up six American oil executives who have been under home arrest in another politically charged case.
It’s unclear if the men — all of whom were convicted and sentenced last year to lengthy prison terms in a corruption case that the U.S. says was marred by irregularities — were being returned to jail. A lawyer for the men said he doesn’t know where they were being taken.
The so-called Citgo 6, for the Houston subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, were lured to Caracas in 2017 for a meeting when masked police busted into a conference room and took them into custody on embezzlement charges tied to a never-executed deal to refinance billions in Citgo bonds.
Saab’s arrival in the U.S. is bound to complicate relations between Washington and Caracas. Maduro’s government has vehemently objected to Saab’s prosecution as a veiled attempt at regime change by Washington. U.S. prosecutors say Saab amassed a fortune wheeling and dealing on behalf of the socialist government, which faces heavy U.S. sanctions.
American authorities have been targeting Saab for years, believing he holds numerous secrets about how Maduro, the president’s family and his top aides siphoned off millions of dollars in government contracts for food and housing amid widespread hunger in oilrich Venezuela.
However his defenders, including Maduro’s government as well as allies Russia and Cuba, consider his arrest illegal.