Saab was reportedly tapped by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to help the country’s food and housing social programs overcome the impact of deadly sanctions unilaterally imposed by the US government over the past decade–until the former was arrested in Cape Verde in June 2020, when his jet stopped to refuel en route to Iran.
Ultimately, Saab was extradited to the US one day before the current Cape Verdean administration–which had promised his release–took power. Saab’s supporters describe the ordeal as a political prosecution aimed at sending a message to anyone thinking of helping the victims of unilateral US sanctions, and say they’ll continue to protest until the Venezuelan diplomat is released from US custody.
Fresh accusations that Saab is secretly a “DEA informant” have appeared in the major corporate US media outlets, a conclusion seemingly encouraged by documents leaked by the prosecution team, further complicating the case.
Saab’s lawyers have publicly corrected the record, explaining that “the sole purpose of the meetings with the Department of Justice and law enforcement officials was to confirm that neither he nor any companies associated with him had done anything wrong."
Despite lawyer David Rivkin’s insistence that any communication Saab may have had with DEA officials was simply to clear his name and would have been undertaken with the “full knowledge and support” and with the consent of Caracas, mainstream outlets have largely declined to include the context, electing instead to present the leaks as an incontrovertible truth.
“Colombian close to Maduro worked as 'DEA informant,” reads a typical headline in the Miami Herald.
Serious questions remain about both the legitimacy of the leaked documents and their timing. In the succinct words of Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez Gómez: “If Alex Saab is working with the DEA, why was he tortured until his teeth were knocked out?”
CODEPINK Latin America coordinator Leo Flores has questions of his own. In recent comments given to Sputnik News, Flores asks: “if [Saab] was a DEA informant, why isn’t he being charged with drug trafficking?”
“The one charge” under which US authorities are still prosecuting the Venezuelan diplomat, Flores notes, “is conspiracy to commit money laundering” with funds the US alleges were taken from Venezuela's public housing program; a far cry from accusing Saab of actual participation in narcotics trafficking.
As Flores points out, the apparent campaign to divide Venezuelans has precedent. In 2013, as former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez began to succumb to health issues, similar accusations of US government collaboration were leveled at his replacement. “Maduro negotiates with the US the return of the DEA to Venezuela to corner Cabello,” read a 2013 headline from ABC España, one of Spain’s top newspapers.
Flores also questioned the timing of the leaks at a “Free Alex Saab” rally held Wednesday outside the US Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, DC.
Describing the leaks as “character assassination,” Flores suggested the documents were “leaked today […] because Alex Saab has a preliminary status hearing in Miami,” where an accusation of police collaboration could “sour the potential pool of jurors.”
Beyond Saab’s freedom as an individual, Flores points to the multiple rallies held throughout Latin America on the same day, which organizers held as part of an international day of action for the incarcerated diplomat. Beyond the nation's capital, activists have also rallied in San Francisco, California, and Austin, Texas.
As Flores explains, Washington’s idea was to “nip a growing social movement in the bud.” Despite the allegations, Flores says organizers will continue drawing attention to the jailed diplomat’s predicament, until justice is done.
“We’re going to keep standing up for Alex Saab until the criminal sanctions against Venezuela end and until Alex Saab is returned to the Venezuelan people.”