Miami (US), 17 May (LaPresse/AP) – The Venezuelan government has announced the expulsion of a close associate of Nicolás Maduro, who is under investigation in the United States for various offences, less than three years after President Joe Biden granted him a pardon as part of a prisoner exchange. The decision marks a sharp turnaround for Alex Saab, whom Maduro had strenuously sought to bring home following his previous international arrest in 2020. Now, the man of Colombian origin, long described by US officials as Maduro’s ‘courier’, could be called upon to testify against his former patron, who is currently on trial in Manhattan for drug trafficking. In a brief statement issued on Saturday, the Venezuelan immigration authority did not specify where Saab had been transferred, but stated that the decision had been taken on the basis of several ongoing criminal investigations in the United States. The reference to Saab simply as a “Colombian citizen” appears to be a nod to Venezuelan law, which prohibits the extradition of its own citizens. Following his latest arrest, the Venezuelan government had submitted to a US court a copy of what it claimed was Saab’s Venezuelan passport, with the then Vice-President Delcy Rodríguez, now acting President, describing him as an “innocent Venezuelan diplomat” who had been illegally “kidnapped” whilst on a humanitarian mission in Iran to circumvent the “immoral imperialist blockade” imposed by the United States.
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