CARACAS.– In what is considered a new stage in relations between the US and Venezuela, the Joe administration Biden agreed to release and hand over Colombian businessman Alex Saab to the Nicolás Maduro regime in exchange for the freedom of eight Americans, four of them political prisoners, and seven Venezuelans who remained in prison, according to preliminary reports. However, there is talk of more than 30 prisoners.
Alex Saab, described as a diplomat by the Nicolás Maduro regime, is considered the most valuable piece to be recovered by the Venezuelan executive in the prisoner negotiations with the US. This, after the pardon and release in 2022 of Franqui Flores and Efraín Campo Flores, nephews of Cilia Flores, who had been detained in Haiti in 2017 and later sentenced for drug trafficking. Both were exchanged for five former managers of Citgo, in Houston, and two Americans who were linked to a military operation Gideon, and this exchange became Biden’s most important agreement to that date.
Alex Saab, record of dark businesses
Alex Saab, a Colombian of Lebanese descent who turns 52 on December 21, is the prisoner most wanted by the Maduro regime, since 2020 when he was intercepted in Cape Verde, Africa, by DEA officials in a drug trafficking investigation. . A year later, amid pressure for his release, he was extradited to Miami, USA, on at least six charges.
The merchant considered the front man of the regime is accused of large illegal businesses that he did for Venezuelan leaders. US prosecutors implicate him in the diversion of $350 million, through accounts in the US, for a bribery scheme in Venezuela.
But he also obtained, together with his partner Álvaro Pulido, juicy contracts to build low-income housing, presenting false import documents for goods and materials that never arrived in the country. He would also be linked to contracts with the Venezuelan regime, in the food subsidy program called the Local Supply and Production Committee, CLAP.
Why is Saab so important to Maduro?
The most serious implications attributed to Alex Saab have to do with money laundering, which makes him a key piece for the regime.
“Maduro depends on Saab for being one of the articulators of dark relationships with key contacts, businessmen who do illicit businesses, such as legitimizing capital linked to drug trafficking,” explain sources related to the investigation.
Furthermore, it is not in Maduro’s interest that Saab reveal information about the high government contacts involved in the dark plots, they added.
Political prisoners in Venezuela, according to Biden exchange
According to information, among the political prisoners negotiated for Saab’s freedom are eight Americans, four of them considered political prisoners, as well as more than 10 Venezuelan detainees. Their release is in full administrative process, so it is estimated that they could be fully released at night.
Mentioned are US prisoners Alexis Hernández and Jerrel Lloyd Kenemore, both held at the Dgcim headquarters, for alleged crimes of terrorist financing, and conspiracy and association to commit a crime, respectively. There would also be Airam Berry and Luke A Denman, held in Sebín, in El Helicoide, on charges of conspiracy, illicit arms trafficking and terrorism, in the case of the incursion through Macuto called operation Gedeón, in 2020.
Among the Venezuelan political prisoners to be released by the regime, according to the Biden-Maduro exchange, are the six unionists Alcides Bracho, Alonso Meléndez, Emilio Negrón, Gabriel Blanco, Néstor Astudillo and Reinaldo Cortés, sentenced to 16 years in prison for demand salary improvements, in August 2023, as reported by Alfredo Romero. They were all released and are awaiting the legal process for their freedom. There is also Roberto Abdul and three other people from the team of the Vente Venezuela party, of the opposition presidential candidate María Corina Machado.
Although it was reported that the exchange would take place in Mexico or in Saint Vincent-Grenadine Islands, it was assured that the place of delivery of Saab and the Americans has not been specified.
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Source: With information from AP, Alberto News, Foro Penal, Diario Las Americas Editorial Team
