Venezuela expels Maduro ally to US again
CARACAS, VENEZUELA—Former Venezuelan industry minister Alex Saab, a close ally of deposed president Nicolas Maduro, was expelled to the United States on Saturday for a second time, Venezuelan officials said.
“The deportation measure was adopted in consideration of the fact that the aforementioned Colombian citizen is involved in the commission of various crimes in the United States of America, as is public, well-known and reported,” the Venezuelan immigration administration said in a statement.
A Colombia-born businessman, Saab had become close to Venezuela’s government in the final years of leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez’s 1999-2013 presidency and then managed a vast import network for Maduro’s administration.
He was accused of acting as frontman and money launderer for Maduro and his government, who in return granted him Venezuelan citizenship and a diplomatic passport.
He was first arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 over money laundering and corruption claims and extradited to the United States the following year.
