Western media are celebrating another supposed ‘victory’ against the Venezuelan government as a Colombian businessman indicted by U.S. authorities as the alleged chief money launder for ‘Nicolas Maduro’s regime in Venezuela’ has been detained in the African island archipelago of Cape Verde.
Alex Saab was detained on June 12 as his San Marino-registered jet made a refuelling stop in Cape Verde on its way from Caracas to Iran.
US ‘Justice Department’ spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman said on June 13 that Saab was arrested in Cape Verde on an Interpol red notice.
The United States has no extradition treaty with Cape Verde and it was not immediately clear what would happen next.
The US government accuses Saab of being the front man for a vast network of money laundering and corruption in Venezuela through shell companies in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Hong Kong, Panama, Colombia, and Mexico.
The US Justice Department in July 2019 indicted Saab and another businessman for allegedly bribing Venezuelan officials and diverting some $350 million to overseas accounts.
The US Treasury Department has also put sanctions on Saab for allegedly running a vast corruption network for a food-aid program that lined the pockets of ‘the Maduro regime’, which has overseen the economic collapse of the oil-rich country.
“Saab engaged with Maduro insiders to run a wide-scale corruption network they callously used to exploit Venezuela’s starving population,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in July 2019 while announcing the sanctions.“They use food as a form of social control, to reward political supporters and punish opponents, all the while pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars through a number of fraudulent schemes.”
The US government and Venezuelan opposition also accuse that the fuel shipments from Iran in May were purchased with gold and by shell companies controlled by Saab to evade the unilateral US sanctions against both countries.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza denounced the “arbitrary and illegal detention” of Saab, who he said was acting on behalf of the Venezuelan government to procure food, medicine, and other supplies to help the country against the coronavirus pandemic.
The Venezuelan opposition, a segment of which is headed by Juan Guaido – who is recognized by dozens of countries including the United States as Venezuela’s interim president (and not recognized by well over 100) – welcomed Saab’s arrest.
“Colombian boss Alex Saab is the main figurehead of the dictatorship; he manages opaque [Venezuelan state oil company] PDVSA businesses, gold, food, alliance with Iran, relations with cartels, and protects ill-gotten money from Maduro and [Maduro’s wife] Cilia Flores,” Julio Borges, an opposition figure close to Guaido, said on Twitter.
“His capture is a hard blow to the structure of the regime, it shows that Venezuelans are not alone and that there is no future with Maduro, not even for those who support him,” he said. LINK
The US accusations should be treated with extreme caution, as they could be another effort to exact retribution on anyone involved in dealings with the Venezuelan or Iranian governments after their failure to prevent the fuel shipments in May, and as with other US actions they are consistent with the US Establishment’s determination to overthrow the Venezuelan government at any cost. (LINK)
If the US officials were genuine in their concern to combat corruption and drug trafficking, one of the best places to start would be investigating and prosecuting former Chiquita Brands executives and Colombian and US officials for possible complicity in massive drug trafficking operations between the two countries (LINK), or conducting criminal prosecutions against senior executives of major US banks involved in laundering billions of dollars on behalf of Colombian and Mexican cartels over many years. (LINK) (LINK)
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“Saab engaged with Maduro insiders to run a wide-scale corruption network they callously used to exploit Venezuela’s starving population,” Talk about blaming the victim. Sanctions, anyone? Just when you think the US can’t make one any more ill, they find that hidden piece of vomit still tucked away in the corner of your stomach.
oh ! if socialism is so great why does it needs the u.s. to lift sanctions to survive ? only inmature mentally inballanced people or little children think that socialism work..
Depends of the type of socialism. Latin socialism is something else than Western gay parades.
Are you sick in the head?
SAME IMMATURE NENTALLY UNBLANCED PEOPLE SUPPORT US PREDATORY/CRONY CAPITALISM, WHICH IS UNWILLING TO PROVIDE THE BASCIS FOR IT’S AMERICAN MAJORITY POPULATION. YOU IDIOT
Iran is hardly sanctioned, still they don’t have a bus driver as president.
So, what?? wtf? If resident Nicholas Maduro used to be a bus driver.??? Bus drivers are not people?
Yes and prostitutes are people too. Don’t you think thete are other criterias than just being people?
INDEED
Only way to stop this sort of US misbehaviour is to do exactly the same; apprehend US citizens and don’t be too particular about the charges.
Here is the background to the criminal activities of the US regime………David and Charles Koch needed the XL Keystone Pipeline. The XL Keystone pipeline takes Canadian tar-sands oil to Texas Gulf Coast refineries. The refineries of the Texas Gulf Coast are optimized for heavy crude. It would cost billions of dollars to rebuild the giant Flint Hills Corpus Christi Refinery, owned by Koch Industries, to use the less-polluting Texas oil drilled nearby.
The Koch’s built the giant Flint Hills Corpus Christi Refinery to process heavy crude from Venezuela. At the time the plant was built Koch Industries were pillaging Venezuelan heavy crude for a fraction of its true value. When Hugo Chavez became President of Venezuela he insisted Koch Industries pay full price for the heavy crude.
Yuan Guido promised to return control of the oil to US companies (ie Koch Industries, Flint Hills Corpus Christi Refineries, there are no other refineries that can process this heavy crude). Hence Trump tells us that Yuan Guido is the democratic leader of Venezuela. Trump himself obtained 3 million less votes, Pompeo (no votes) and Bolton (no votes). Guido has never stood for election anywhere. Maduro however was re-elected with a huge majority.
Massive corruption due to big corporate control of government, continual abuse of power and mass murder can only be described as fascism. White Supremacy and Fascism is the Key to understanding America’s Venezuela aggression (supreme international crime). Venezuela is a story of four centuries of white rule and It all came to an end with the 1998 election of Hugo Chavez who won with the overwhelming support of the Mestizo (indigenous) majority.
This rejection of white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’ chosen successor. Social investment in Venezuela during the Chavez administration reduced poverty from nearly 50% in 1999 to about 27% in 2011, increased school enrollment and brought real democracy to Venezuela. Venezuela was the wealthiest nation, by far, in South America. Hugo Chavez became President on 2 February 1999. Venezuela reached its all-time-high economic-growth rate in 2004 after 5 years of Socialism.
The economy rapidly declined as soon as the U.S. started its coup-attempts and imposed sanctions. It was the US that murdered Chavez. It is estimated that the sanctions have been the catalyst for up to 40,000 deaths in Venezuela.
Lets be quite clear about this: the people who support Trumps White Supremacy (racist colonial rule) are no better than he is. The problem with fascists is that they think they are Republicans or Democrats.
Hugo was a freemason and was made the same way like they all are – and everything else is theater: ‘“We don’t appear in public like a political party. We participate as citizens and help build the country,” IPS was told by Víctor Higuera, the grand master of the lodge in Venezuela. President Chávez, a former lieutenant-colonel, served in the army division headed up by Higuera, a retired army general. “Our ultimate aim is to promote a world society where all men can live in freedom and brotherhood, where what is good for some is good for all,” said Higuera.’ http://www.ipsnews.net/2005/11/latin-america-the-masonic-web/
There are many, many pictures which show Hugo together with his former divison commander, Grandmaster Higuera.
So don’t write about ‘Trumps White Supremacy’, when you talk about the Zionist Trump. And please don’t forget to mention, that Koch Industries did also build refineries for Stalin and Hitler, which is a perfect example of what’s really going on:
‘Oddly, and what’s been known before, is before working under Hitler’s Third Reich, Fred Koch had worked for Stalin, where — under Stalin’s first five-year plan — Fred Koch helped build up the Russian, the Soviet oil refineries and really gave huge muscle to the oil industry in the Soviet Union.’ https://www.npr.org/2016/01/19/463565987/hidden-history-of-koch-brothers-traces-their-childhood-and-political-rise
So ‘white rule’ is rubbish, its the the rule of certain other people, and they are for creating Zionist wars. By the way ‘Saab’ is a Lebanese ‘Druze’ -Name, the Druze are friends of Israel, and friends of Zionism. Venezuela ist therefore stepping right into the trap, which also Master Freemason Hugo Chavez build for his own people…
the globalistsplay both sides ..
You dismiss everything in Sternz’s comment by yelling free mason/zionist.
It doesnt matter who people are, what matters is what people do. In this context the Hugo Chavez and Castro eras made huge improvements not only in social and economic matters for the populations but also in human dignity and integrity yes?
“Castro was also free mason, photo with Hitler and Pol Pot, raped his female office employees, bla bla bla”.
It wasn’t to good what Hugo did, since his country is today a poor country. His TV-shows with hours and hours of monologue were also rather boring, even worse then Trumps UN speaches.
Castro is a rabbinic name, Fidel was an actor and related to Batista – even has his own imdb page: ‘I don’t think anyone has been slandered more than the Jews… There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust… Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away… I never saw a contradiction between the ideas that sustain me and the ideas of that symbol, of that extraordinary figure, Jesus Christ… These long-haired youths walk around with their transistor radios listening to imperialist music! They corrupt the morals of young girls — and destroy posters of Che! That this is a bourgeois regime? NO! There is nothing liberal in us! We are collectivists! We are communists! There will be no Prague Spring here!’ https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004242/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
America was pillaging Venezuela so hard that when they stoped Venezuela started to starve.
This rejection of white supremacy continues under Maduro, Chavez’ chosen successor. Social investment in Venezuela during the Chavez administration reduced poverty from nearly 50% in 1999 to about 27% in 2011, increased school enrollment and brought real democracy to Venezuela. Venezuela was the wealthiest nation, by far, in South America. Hugo Chavez became President on 2 February 1999. Venezuela reached its all-time-high economic-growth rate in 2004 after 5 years of Socialism.
The economy rapidly declined as soon as the U.S. started its coup-attempts and imposed sanctions. It was the US that murdered Chavez. It is estimated that the sanctions have been the catalyst for up to 40,000 deaths in Venezuela.
Kinda speaks for itself and shows the utterly despicable and criminal nature of the US regime. Also points out what a complete fascist and despicable person you are.
Ahh the anti white suprematist that calls me fascist because I don’t buy socialism lies, you have a special place in the zoo. Children are allowed to throw bananas at you.
The Libya concept. Great Satan cant take anyones success.
without Colombian coke amerikan bankers couldn’t operate their money counting machines
Some people say it’s about 40% of the US GDP, which the drug trade generates. So nothing has changed since David Sassoon:
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13218-sassoon
to the ports in Boston and elswere from Colombia
Venezuela laundering drug money from the regime owned opium fields in Afghanistan in cooperation with the democratic selected Afghan Government Taliban…eehhh no……..with the Afghan drug and terrorist group Taliban. Yes there it was.
He must have forgot to send the check to the CIA for their latest cut..
US disgraceful tiranny…Venezuelian people, men, women, and children, humiliated and put into undeserved misery, starving, in total distress, owing to YOUR damn PETRO DOLLAR!! SHAME ON YOU !!