At the time of writing this interview, Alex Saab had been incarcerated for 885 days at a checkpoint in Florida, United States, according to the marker posted on the social networks of those who are campaigning for his release. Saab is being held there until the Court for the Southern District of Florida determines whether or not the United States accepts diplomatic status. In case of accepting it, Saab would have to be released, says his team of advisers.
A lawyer who is part of Alex Saab’s legal team came to the writing of Últimas Noticias. Indhriana Parada. She spoke, among other topics, of a declassified document where a conversation by Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump’s then Secretary of State, appears, where he admits that Alex Saab was a diplomat.
The lawyer and human rights activist has just written a book that is like Saab’s annotated file. The Kidnapping of Alex Saab was presented yesterday at the International Book Fair, Caracas chapter. Although President Nicolás Maduro had already pointed it out on November 13 when he inaugurated the literary event at the National Art Gallery, from where he described Alex Saab as a “prisoner of war of North American imperialism.”
—What is the status of the process followed by Alex Saab in the US?
—We must explain that the process is carried out in the Court of the Southern District of Florida. There are two processes that run parallel, one of them criminal. To start this process, Saab was presented in that Court on October 18, 2021, two days after he was extracted from Cape Verde and taken to the United States.
What happened at that hearing?
—At that hearing, Alex Saab pleaded not guilty, not guilty. A day later, seven of the eight criminal charges against him were withdrawn, leaving the crime of conspiracy to launder assets, that is, a set of activities that according to them would be preparatory to committing a criminal act.
How is that process going?
—That process is paralyzed in that Court of the Southern District of Florida. There it is discussed whether Saab is immune from being criminally prosecuted; because what happens with Alex Saab’s immunity is going to affect the criminal trial.
—How did Saab defend itself?
—The defense promoted a motion arguing that there could be strong evidence that would demonstrate, for example, that the United States government had full knowledge of the diplomatic quality of Alex Saab and that he was a special envoy of Maduro.
“How did you prove that?”
—The United States Attorney’s Office searched security agencies for classified and declassified documents, and, although they were limited (on one page they crossed out all the content), it was shown that there are conversations between the then Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, with the representatives of the United States for Iran. In those conversations they expressed their concern about what they were going to say, what they were going to argue because it was very likely that Alex Saab would be invoked diplomatic immunity.
“What does that prove specifically?”
—This shows that, prior to the arbitrary detention and throughout the process, already such important officials, such as the Secretary of State of the United States, had full knowledge of who Alex Saab is and they say so. As also reported in Mark Esper’s book, A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times. He says verbatim in that book that they knew that Alex was sent by Maduro to buy food, medicine and fuel.
—And what action was the US going to take regarding Saab’s immunity, based on those Pompeo conversations?
—In these conversations it is shown that they planned to argue that they were going to ignore Alex Saab as a diplomat of Venezuela, because they did not know the government of the constitutional president of Nicolás Maduro.
How do you refute that argument?
—This argument is irrelevant and very weak, because there is jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice according to which the non-recognition of a State to another State and the non-recognition of a State to a Government, is not a reason to eliminate the rights and international obligations to other countries. They are not attacking Saab’s diplomatic quality, but Maduro’s legality to appoint him.
—Why did it become known some time later that Saab was a diplomat?
—The appointment of a special envoy is an exclusive power of President Maduro, who directs diplomatic relations. The President exercised this power based on an economic emergency decree of 2016 and from there he appointed Alex Saab as a special envoy to combat this economic war and that is why he goes out to exercise international trade on behalf of Venezuela. The National Security Law says that the State can reserve the publication of those acts related to the security of the country.
—Maduro classified Alex Saab as a prisoner of war.
—It is so, because Venezuela is being subjected to an unconventional war. So much so that the United Nations Human Rights Council itself opened a special rapporteurship to analyze the impact of coercive measures in 35 countries around the world, including Venezuela. We must already accept that not only the armed conflict is a scenario of war. We are in a scenario of war, a very deep economic, political, diplomatic war and these victims of these new forms of war are unprotected by the Geneva Conventions.
—Has Alex Saab been contacted by the United States authorities to reach an agreement?
—From the first moment he was arbitrarily detained in Cape Verde; Before the first presentation hearing, he was already being presented with the possibility of an agreement. First, that he plead guilty and issue a statement against the Venezuelan government and specifically against President Nicolás Maduro. Another request was that he stop working with the Venezuelan government.
—Venezuela stood up from the Dialogue Table with a sector of the opposition for the arrest of Saab. Now the dialogues in Paris returned.
—Peace diplomacy has brought great victories to Venezuela. This definitely has a political solution, there are no legal arguments, international law and the sovereignty of Venezuela are being violated. The United States knows it and the judges there too.
