Maduro demands the release of Álex Saab to unlock the dialogues in Venezuela

The Venezuelan government, headed by Nicolas Maduroraised the bar and set five conditions to unlock the dialogue with the opposition on the eve of the international summit this Tuesday in Bogotá in which delegations from 19 countries and a representative of the European Union participate.

One of them is the liberation of the barranquillero Alex Saab who is facing trial in the United States and whom the Maduro government calls a “diplomat.”

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With this request, the regime shows how important Saab is to its interests. In fact, when Saab was extradited from Cape Verde to the United States, the government suspended the meeting of the dialogue table in Mexico protesting what it considered a “kidnapping.”

At the time, Joe Biden’s senior United States adviser for Latin America Juan Gonzales, who is one of the guests today in Bogotá, He explained that in his country there is an independence of the powers.

Saab was detained on June 12, 2020 at the Amílcar Cabral International Airport in Cape Verde. At that moment, the United States Department of Justice accused him of being the main front man for Nicolás Maduro.

The story that surrounds this man from Barranquilla who is once again the protagonist at the request of Caracas has cinematic overtones. Thus, for example, his arrest occurred when he was traveling in a private plane with Venezuelan registration from Maiquetía, Caracas to Tehran that landed to refuel and covered the Iran-Russia route.

Secondly, Jorge Rodríguez, president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, further said, that for a dialogue with the opposition to resume, the investigation carried out by the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Maduro regime for crimes against humanity must be immediately suspended.

The third point is the lifting of all sanctions imposed on Venezuela. Fourth, the return of the Venezuelan money and gold that is “illegally” held abroad and, finally, that the US release 3.2 billion dollars from Caracas and deposit that money in the social investment fund agreed with the opposition .

Nicolas Maduro, President of Venezuela. (PHOTO: Miguel Gutiérrez / EFE).

Although he wished success to the conference this Tuesday and to President Petro, Maduro once again conditioned the dialogue with the opposition, asking not only for the lifting of sanctions, but also for the suspension of the investigation against him at the International Criminal Court.

“The first condition is the lifting of all illegal sanctions, unilateral, illegitimate, illegal coercive measures that have been imposed against Venezuela since 2015, almost a number that is close to 1,000 sanctions against our economy. , of our oil,” he said on Maduro’s program.

And I add: “The money from Venezuela that is stolen, that is illegally withheld, that is kidnapped, the gold from Venezuela, that is illegally withheld in England, the money that is in European banks, the profits of CITGO have to be fully returned to whoever it belongs to him, which is to the people of Venezuela”.

These are a series of complex conditions because they are directly made to the United States at a time when the electoral race begins in that country with Biden’s decision to run for re-election.

In fact, the Democratic president appointed a top-level team to travel to Bogotá. They will be Juan González, special assistant to the president and principal director of the National Security Council for the Western Hemisphere; Chris Dodd, Special Presidential Advisor for the Americas; and Jon Finer, the president’s top deputy national security adviser.

Source: Elcomercio