FILE – Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, left, and Alex Saab stand together during an event marking the anniversary of the 1958 coup that overthrew dictator Marcos Perez Jimenez, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/ File)
Venezuela has deported businessman Alex Saab, a close ally of former president Nicolas Maduro who is facing multiple criminal investigations in the United States, in a dramatic reversal less than three years after he was pardoned by then US President Joe Biden as part of a prisoner swap deal.The Venezuelan immigration authority announced the decision on Saturday, saying Saab’s removal was based on several ongoing US criminal investigations. While the statement did not specify where Saab had been sent, it referred to him only as a “Colombian citizen”, an apparent reference to Venezuelan laws that prohibit the extradition of Venezuelan nationals.Saab, 54, had long been regarded by US officials as Maduro’s “bag man” and could now become a key witness in cases linked to Venezuela’s former leadership. Maduro himself is awaiting trial on drug charges in Manhattan after being captured in a US military raid in January.The deportation marks a sharp fall from grace for Saab, whose return to Venezuela in 2023 had been celebrated by Maduro and senior officials as a diplomatic victory over Washington. Following his earlier arrest in Cape Verde in 2020 during a refuelling stop en route to Iran, Maduro and then acting president Delcy Rodriguez claimed Saab was a Venezuelan diplomat engaged in a humanitarian mission aimed at bypassing US sanctions. Since taking power after Maduro’s ouster on January 3, Rodriguez has distanced herself from Saab. She removed him from her Cabinet, stripped him of his role as a liaison for foreign investors and reportedly sidelined him from the country’s political and business networks. Rumours had circulated for months that Saab was either under house arrest or imprisoned.His deportation is expected to deepen divisions within Venezuela’s ruling Chavista movement, named after former president Hugo Chavez. Rodriguez has sought closer engagement with Washington, including opening Venezuela’s oil and mining sectors to American investment, moves that have angered hardline allies who have long condemned the US as an “Empire”.Among those critics isVenezuela interior minister Diosdado Cabello, one of the most influential figures within Venezuela’s security apparatus and himself the subject of criminal charges in the United States.In February that US federal prosecutors had spent months investigating Saab’s alleged role in a bribery conspiracy involving Venezuelan food import contracts. The probe stems from a 2021 US justice department case against Saab’s long-time associate Alvaro Pulido.The investigation centres on the CLAP programme, a government-run scheme created under Maduro to distribute food staples such as rice, corn flour and cooking oil during Venezuela’s economic collapse and hyperinflation crisis.According to the indictment, Saab, identified as “co-conspirator 1”, allegedly helped establish a network of companies used to bribe a pro-Maduro governor who awarded inflated food import contracts from Mexico.Saab first came under US scrutiny after his 2020 arrest in Cape Verde while travelling to Iran aboard a private jet. His extradition to the US at the time triggered outrage from Maduro’s government, which insisted he held diplomatic status.Rodriguez hailed Saab’s eventual return to Venezuela in 2023 as a “resounding victory” against what she described as a US campaign of “lies and threats”. However, several Republicans criticised Biden’s decision to pardon Saab. Senator Chuck Grassley wrote to then Attorney General Merrick Garland saying history “should remember (Saab) as a predator of vulnerable people.”Biden’s pardon was narrowly limited to a 2019 indictment tied to allegations that Saab and Pulido secured contracts through bribery to build low-income housing projects in Venezuela that were never completed. The pardon formed part of a broader deal under which Venezuela released imprisoned Americans and returned fugitive defence contractor Leonard Francis, widely known as “Fat Leonard”.Saab could now become an important witness for US authorities. Court filings and closed-door hearings revealed that he had secretly cooperated with the US Drug Enforcement Administration before his first arrest, helping investigators examine corruption inside Maduro’s inner circle. As part of that cooperation, Saab forfeited more than USD 12 million linked to illicit business dealings.Saab’s Miami-based lawyer Neil Schuster declined to comment, while the US justice department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
