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The agency Reuters confirmed this Wednesday that Alex Saab, a Colombian-Venezuelan businessman and high-ranking official of chavismo, was arrested in Venezuela during a joint operation between the United States and Venezuelan authorities, according to a U.S. official.
"The Venezuelan official Alex Saab, a former Colombian-Venezuelan businessman who had previously been detained in the United States, was arrested on Wednesday as part of a joint operation between U.S. and Venezuelan authorities," the news agency reported on Wednesday.
On its part, Caracol Radio confirmed that intelligence sources in the United States verified Saab's capture, known as Nicolás Maduro's frontman, and detailed that the arrest took place in the early morning, around 2:00 a.m., during a joint operation between Venezuelan authorities and the FBI.
According to the Colombian media, Saab was arrested in Venezuelan territory and is currently in the custody of the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN) while his extradition to the United States is being determined.
Caracol Radio added that in the same operation, Raúl Gorrín Belisario, a Venezuelan businessman and owner of the channel Globovisión, was also arrested. He has been identified as a frontman for Maduro and is sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Alex Saab, born in Barranquilla in 1971, was arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 and extradited to the United States, where he faced charges of conspiracy and money laundering.
In 2023, he was released following a presidential pardon and subsequently joined the chavista cabinet as Minister of Industry and National Production.
The new arrest of Saab represents a shift in cooperation between Washington and Caracas following the fall of Nicolás Maduro and the beginning of the interim government of Delcy Rodríguez.
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