Alex Saab, the businessman linked to the Maduro government, “was an informant for the US DEA”

These documents had so far remained sealed at the request of the Prosecution and were now disclosed in the context of the ongoing trial against Saab.
The Colombian businessman is accused of allegedly conspiring to commit money laundering, a crime for which he has pleaded “not guilty.”

One supposed Maduro’s ally

Since Saab was arrested in Cape Verde in June 2020, the government of Nicolás Maduro has made numerous efforts to try to stop his extradition to the United States.
Supporters of the ruling party have developed a whole campaign in Venezuela to support Saab. GETTY IMAGES

Thus, Caracas said that Saab had obtained Venezuelan citizenship and appointed him, in December 2020, as Venezuela’s ambassador to the African Union.

Subsequently, in September 2021, the Maduro government announced its intention to incorporate Saab as a delegate of the pro-government commission that was negotiating in Mexico with the opposition a solution to the Venezuelan political crisis.

Saab, however, remained detained in Cape Verde and once he was extradited to the United States in October of that year, the Maduro government decided to rise from the negotiating table in protest.

The revelation that Saab was collaborating with the DEA has been widely interpreted as a blow to Maduro’s government.

However, David Rivkin, the Colombian businessman’s lawyer in the United States, said in a statement that Venezuela’s government was informed of Saab’s meetings with U.S. officials and that these were only intended to clarify that their companies had not incurred any improper action.

“Saab remains a loyal citizen and diplomat of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and will never do anything that harms the interests of the country and the people who have given him so much,” Rivkin said in the statement.

Original source in Spanish