In Petare, the country’s social movements gathered to reject coercive measures imposed by the United States and its allies and to express their support for the diplomat, Alex Saab, kidnapped by the US justice for supporting the Venezuelan people to free the blockade.
The Free Alex Saab Movement, was present accompanied by the group of volunteer lawyers in defense of the Venezuelan diplomat, from where they reiterated their rejection of the illegal detention of Saab, Venezuela’s Special Envoy to Iran, who was managing food and medical supplies from beginning of the covid-19 pandemic when he was kidnapped by US mandate.
“Petare is a combat zone. How wrong they are (USA) to carry out actions as low as the one they have done against Alex Saab, actions as low as putting Alex Saab in prison so that the people of Venezuela know the consequences of not having food and other things such as medical teams” that the diplomat managed,” said José Vicente Rangel Ávalos, mayor of the Sucre municipality in Miranda state.
He also stressed that during all this time, Venezuelans have shown that they do not kneel before any empire. «We bowed to the Spanish empire. How wrong they are (USA) to believe that we are going to bow down to them, ”he sentenced.
For his part, deputy Pedro Infante stressed the importance of showing loyalty “to those who reached out to the Venezuelan people.”
“Here we are again, in an act of conscience. It is up to us to be loyal to the loyal, to be consistent with those who have reached out and helped our people,” said the deputy.
For her part, Camilla Fabri Saab, wife of Álex Saab, thanked the Venezuelan people for the permanent support of Ambassador Saab, who has been kidnapped for 22 months when the Government of Cape Verde held him on the island of Sal and 5 months since his transfer to Miami.
“The United States has kidnapped Alex, it has never kidnapped a diplomat before. Feeding a people is not illegal, helping Venezuela is not illegal. The US chose politics before International Law, chose to impose its political hegemony, its judicial overreach before International Law”, he said.
Saab human rights violation
Alex Saab was appointed special envoy with diplomatic credentials by the government of Venezuela on April 9, 2018.
The businessman had worked in the government food assistance programs (CLAP) and public housing. More importantly, he was helping the government try to circumvent the sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the US.
On June 12, 2020, with diplomatic passport in hand, Alex Saab was on his way from Caracas to Tehran to purchase food, medicine and fuel in legal international trade. His plane was diverted to the archipelago island nation of Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa for a refueling stopover. There, on instructions from the US, he was arrested in an act of extraterritorial judicial overreach, without a warrant.
As Venezuela’s special envoy and deputy ambassador to the African Union, Saab was protected by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Under this treaty, diplomats are supposed to enjoy absolute immunity from arrest, even in time of war.
The regional court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which has jurisdiction over Cape Verde, ruled that not only should Saab be released, but he should also be awarded monetary compensation. Cape Verde first appealed the verdict. After losing a second time, Cape Verde simply flaunted the ruling, apparently on instructions from Washington. Similarly, the ruling of the UN Human Rights Committee was ignored to Saab’s favor.
Then, on October 16, 2021, the US perpetrated what Venezuelan President Maduro called the “second kidnapping” of Alex Saab who was illegally kidnapped, taken without legal documents and without notification to his family or legal team, and was flown to Miami, where he remains in prison. It should be noted that the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Cape Verde.
