The scaffolding of power that Alex Saab built in the shadow of Miraflores seems to be cracking. What for years was a financial steel structure, Today he shows cracks after his alleged new arrest in Caracas. This new chapter reactivates a file in Washingtonn which, despite the pardon from the Joe Biden administration, was never forgotten by federal prosecutors.
According to an analysis of diary ABC of Spain, the figure of Saab It is not that of a simple diplomat, but that of an operator whoand became embedded in the heart of Chavismo. According to published research, the rise of this Colombian businessman coincided with the darkest period of shortages in Venezuela, consolidating a scheme where political loyalty was paid with food contracts.
The basis of fortune and subsequent judicial siege against Saab resides in the Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP). Far from being a genuine social assistance program, the US Treasury Department described it as a network of corruption.
The tactic was systematic in which direct awards were made without bidding, foods with zero nutritional value were imported while they were billed as premium products. The use of front companies in Mexico, Türkiye and Hong Kong was detected to move the money and erase the trail.
According to Treasury allegations, “Saab bribed Maduro’s stepsons—Walter, Yosser and Yoswal, known as ‘Los Chamos’—to ensure access to overvalued public contracts.”
Controversial pardon
Saab’s journey since his arrest in Cape Verde in 2020 until his extradition to Miami In 2021 it was an unprecedented judicial saga. The Maduro government even stopped political negotiation tables, demanding their freedom under the argument of a supposed diplomatic immunity that the US courts never recognized.
The most unexpected turn occurred in December 2023. In a move that generated “deep discomfort in the Federal Prosecutor’s Office,” Joe Biden He granted a pardon that allowed Saab to return to Caracas. However, this forgiveness was not an absolute carte blanche.
The clemency document established strict conditions how not to commit new federal crimes, renounce any claim against the US government, abandon rights to seized property and “not receive economic benefits derived from books, movies or other productions about their situation.
Any slip in these conditions, according to the legal interpretation highlighted by the newspaper ABC, could revoke the benefit and reactivate the pending accounts with the North American justice system.
Internal purge?
Saab’s return to Venezuela was not that of an ordinary citizen; They received him as a hero and appointed Minister of Industry. But the wind changed. His recent departure from the cabinet and the reports of his capture by Sebin They suggest that the “front man” stopped being useful or became too heavy a piece for the internal balance of Chavismo.
The “hunger entrepreneur” narrative reaches its most critical point. As Washington watches from the sidelines, The man who once pulled the strings of Venezuela’s food supply appears to be experiencing firsthand the fragility of loyalties in times of crisis.
The complete note in ABC of Spain
