(CNN Spanish) – The President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Jorge Rodriguez, announced, Tuesday, the Colombian businessman Alex Saab She will be incorporated as a full member of the government delegation To negotiate with the opposition in Mexico To find solutions to the deep political and social crisis in the country.
The opposition delegation responded with a statement hours after the announcement, calling on mediators in the Kingdom of Norway to ensure compliance with the rules previously agreed upon by the two parties. “The declaration of the establishment request that was submitted today corresponds to a defense strategy of the system before the judicial process between two countries with the separation of powers and democracy, and their judicial bodies follow the extradition process,” the statement explained.
Rodriguez, head of the Chavista delegation, also said that Saab will also be part of the National Council for Social Concern, which was agreed in the first round of negotiations, which seeks to address the serious supply crisis that the South American country is going through. via.
Saab is a Colombian businessman sought by the US Department of Justice for money laundering, and the government asserts that he is the first man to be questioned by President Nicolas Maduro.
As for Saab, who was awarded the diplomatic rank by Caracas, he has been imprisoned in Cape Verde since June 2020 due to an Interpol red alert. The African island state authorities detained the businessman during a layover during his trip to Iran, where he was heading, according to the Venezuelan government, on a humanitarian mission to obtain essential supplies.
Last week, the Constitutional Court of Cape Verde He considered that a difficult extradition to the United States is carried out in accordance with the lawThus opening the way for his extradition to that country.
Rodriguez said that Saab was “kidnapped in a prison abroad for more than 400 days” and according to him, he was punished with this punishment for doing “the jobs of obtaining medicine and food for the people of Venezuela”; Moreover, he did not explain how Saab’s integration into the ongoing negotiations in Mexico could be achieved, given its legal status.
“We will immediately nominate the facilitators of the government of the Kingdom of Norway and its accompanying countries, the government of the Netherlands and the government of the Russian Federation, as well as the head of the delegation of the opposition sector that is sitting in Mexico,” the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly said at the press conference.
According to a statement issued by the US Treasury on July 25, 2019, Saab has benefited from several “exaggerated contracts,” including those under the Local Supply and Production Commissions program, the Venezuelan state food subsidy program, and participated in illicit operations with that country’s gold.
Lawyers for the Colombian businessman assert that their client is innocent and that he has not committed any crime in any country.