Kidnapped Diplomat Alex Saab Brought to the US to Stand Trial for Buying Food for Venezuela

By Leni Villagomez Reeves

November 2021

Who is Alex Saab?
Alex Saab is a Venezuelan diplomat who was en route from Caracas to Tehran on June 12, 2020, when his plane was diverted to Cabo Verde, a small island nation off the coast of West Africa, for refueling. He was removed by force by the Cabo Verde police at the insistence of the United States government, although no crime had been committed and no arrest warrant existed. He was held for 16 months while the US processed his extradition, then, even before the extradition hearings in Cabo Verde were completed, taken to the US on October 18 2021 for trial.

What did he do?
Saab was en route to Iran to negotiate shipments of fuel and supplies for Venezuela;  he was born in Colombia, but is an accredited diplomat for Venezuela.  He is accused of trying to procure humanitarian supplies of food, fuel, and medicine from Iran, in legal trade but in violation of illegal US sanctions.  

Indicted for using Venezuela’s money to buy food for the people of Venezuela
Alex Saab was indicted on 8 counts of “money laundering” before US Magistrate Judge John J. O'Sullivan of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.  He will be arraigned and allowed to enter a plea on November 1. The charges are that he procured food for a government program that distributes food to the people of Venezuela, providing subsidized food ration boxes to poor Venezuelans.  That is what the  “money laundering” charges mean. The reasoning of the US, expressed by the Department of Justice, is that  "By offering food through this program, the former regime is able to maintain its influence because many Venezuelan citizens do not have enough money to buy food and therefore depend on the rations CLAP provides to survive."  Of course, the fact that it is US sanctions, first imposed in December 2014, that have intentionally wrecked the economy of Venezuela and impoverished its citizens is not mentioned either by the US government or the US media, which parrots government statements uncritically.  And what they mean by “the former regime” is the current elected fully functioning government of Venezuela.  And there seems to be a  very casual  lack of concern about the survival of those people who depend on the food supplied by the program the US is determined to block.

Sanctions as a weapon of war
His case raises dangerous precedents in terms of extraterritorial judicial abuse by the US in enforcing unilateral coercive economic measures on other countries.  In recent decades, the US has increasingly used sanctions as an instrument of foreign policy.

Some of the 39 nations and territories are under direct or indirect sanctions. Most of these sanctions are not authorized by the United Nations Security Council and many of them are enacted by the US alone. They are called “unilateral coercive measures” at the United Nations. These US decrees and legislation are “extraterritorial” when they assume the right to impose regulations, restrictions and penalties on non- US countries, companies and individuals. Sanctions primarily hurt civilians. Humanitarian “exceptions” have not worked.

Violation of international law
Saab’s attorney, Jose Manual Pinto Monteiro, said, “Alex Saab, special envoy and ambassador of Venezuela, was kidnapped by the United States and taken to the U.S.  This procedure violates all the rules of international law”.

Bad as the effect of unilateral coercive economic measures, sanctions, and blockades are, kidnaping a foreign diplomat in a third country is carrying US international terrorism to a new higher level.

Why?
There appear to be two primary reasons.  The first is the obvious attempt to make people  everywhere afraid to do any kind of  business with Venezuela.  If a person engaging in trade with Venezuela can be seized anywhere and imprisoned even though they have nothing to do with the U.S. and have not been to U.S, territory, clearly the message is that the U.S. rules everywhere and no one is safe anywhere if they defy U.S. orders.  The other reason is that the U.S. government appears to believe that Saab has knowledge of others who are part of Venezuela’s legitimate attempt to circumvent cruel U.S. sanctions, so that, if he can be abused and terrorized, he may “name names” and reveal others.

Diplomatic immunity
Under the Geneva Conventions, a credentialed diplomat such as Saab has absolute immunity from arrest, even in the time of war. The US says it does not recognize Saab’s diplomatic status.  It is almost inconceivable that the US believes it  has the authority to determine who other countries may choose and receive as ambassadors.

Nobody is safe
The case sets dangerous precedents - it raises to a new height the practice of extraterritorial judicial abuse by the US in enforcing its unilateral economic coercive measures on Venezuela and 38 other countries, comprising a third of the world’s population. If the U.S. government can extradite Alex Saab, it amounts to allowing the U.S to  seize, charge and extradite anybody anywhere for entirely political reasons having nothing to do with any criminal actions  - simply for refusing to recognize U.S. sanctions and blockades.  

Learn more and raise your voice
If you wish to find out more information, and if you want to sign a petition urging the release of Alex Saab, please go to https://afgj.org/free-alex-saab

Contact: Leni Villagomez Reeves - lenivreeves@gmail.com
Cindy Domingo - cindydomingo@gmail.com