Alex Saab, a businessman close to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and accused of money laundering was extradited on Saturday, October 16, from Cape Verde to the United States, which sparked the anger of Caracas, who suspended his participation dialogue with the opposition.

Considered an important intermediary of Venezuelan power, Alex Saab "is on the plane en route to the United States," said a source in his legal team.

He is supposed to have "his first judicial hearing Monday, October 18" in a Florida court, the US Department of Justice said in a statement, confirming this extradition.

The Colombian businessman, 49, and his partner Alvaro Pulido are accused in the United States of being at the head of a vast network which allowed the socialist leader Nicolas Maduro and his regime to hijack for their benefit food aid to Venezuela.

>> To see: In Colombia, the hunger and distress of Venezuelan refugees

They are believed to have transferred some $ 350 million (around € 302 million) from Venezuela to accounts they controlled in the United States and other countries.

They face up to 20 years in prison.

Alex Saab, who also has Venezuelan nationality and a Venezuelan diplomatic passport, was indicted in July 2019 in Miami for money laundering, and arrested during a plane stopover in Cape Verde, off the coast of Africa. West, in June 2020.

"The linchpin of Maduro regime affairs"

"All that we will know about Alex Saab and the great corruption at the highest level of power in Venezuela will be partly thanks to the justice" of Cape Verde, "who resisted the pressures", welcomed Roberto Deniz, journalist specializing in the dossier.

"Never (Caracas) had worked so hard for someone. What explains why we move heaven and earth for him? He can reveal things on the assemblies, the circulation of funds, the additional costs. .. It was the linchpin of the Maduro regime's affairs with allied countries, "he recently told AFP.

"We have been informed that Alex Saab had been put on a United States Department of Justice plane and sent to this country," said José Manuel Pinto Monteiro, one of his attorneys in Cape Verde.

"The extradition is illegal because the procedure was not yet final."

This sparked the ire of Caracas who "suspended his participation (...) in the dialogue. We will not attend the (fourth) round which was to begin on October 17 in Mexico City, in protest at the brutal aggression ( ...) against Alex Saab ", announced the President of Parliament Jorge Rodriguez, head of the delegation of power.

Alex Saab was appointed as a member of the delegation of power for the previous round in September.

Power and opposition began negotiations in August.

The power wants an abolition of the sanctions imposed by the countries which do not recognize the election of Maduro.

The opposition, which has broken with its boycott strategy (presidential 2018 and legislative 2020), wants free and transparent elections for the regional election of November 21, but especially the presidential election of 2024.

"American detainees in Venezuela now used as political pawns"

Opponent Julio Borges told AFP that with extradition begins "the prosecution of someone who stole millions of dollars from Venezuelans, who is directly responsible for the hunger and the crisis humanitarian "in Venezuela.

Without an official link, six former executives of Citgo, a US subsidiary of the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, were returned to prison on Sunday, AFP learned from one of their lawyers. .

Sentenced to 8 to 13 years for corruption in November 2020, they had been placed under house arrest in April, which was then perceived as a gesture of goodwill by President Maduro towards Washington.

"American detainees in Venezuela are now used as political pawns," responded former US diplomat Bill Richardson, who led an unsuccessful mission to Venezuela to secure their release last year.

"We will continue to press for their release," he added.

Ivan Duque, the Colombian president, one of the main political opponents of Caracas, welcomed on Twitter the extradition, speaking of "victory in the fight against drug trafficking, money laundering and corruption that the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro favored ".

With AFP

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