PRESIDENT MADURO SENDS STRONG MESSAGE OF SUPPORT FOR ALEX SAAB

28 February 2022

PRESIDENT MADURO SENDS STRONG MESSAGE OF SUPPORT FOR ALEX SAAB

PRESIDENT’S REMARKS COME DURING ADDRESS TO UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

Today, 28 February 2022, President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela H.E. Nicolás Maduro Moros, addressed the President and the Committee Members of the 49th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council.

In his speech, the President spoke of the physical assaults and violation of human rights used against the Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab, who was illegally extradited to face charges of money laundering in the U.S. from Cape Verde on 16 October 2021.

The President highlighted that “Ambassador Alex Saab was illegally kidnapped in June 2020 in Cape Verde while on an official mission to bring food and medicine to Venezuela. On October 16, 2021, he was kidnapped by a group of U.S. military personnel and illegally taken from Cape Verde to the state of Florida.”

This is a powerful endorsement from the government of Venezuela in support of its Special Envoy, and will underline in an emphatic way that Alex Saab retains the full and unqualified support of President Maduro and his colleagues.

President Maduro went on to comment on the ruling of the leading West African human rights court which twice ruled that Alex Saab must be freed and the extradition process against him be terminated “Despite the clear and categorical ruling of the Court of ECOWAS (the Economical Community of West African States), which ordered his immediate release. His diplomatic immunity, his human rights and his own physical integrity were cruelly and systematically violated. His trial in a U.S. court is plagued by serious flaws and aberrant distortions.”

The President ended his remarks highlighting the key role to be played by Alex Saab in the Mexico Dialogue between his government and the Venezuelan opposition by saying “By the end of 2021, Diplomat Alex Saab was appointed an official and permanent representative of the Venezuelan Government at the Dialogue Table in Mexico. The Dialogue table between the constitutional government which I preside over, and the different sectors of the Venezuelan opposition.

Consequently, his second kidnapping and his illegal extraction to the United States was a deliberate and cruel blow to the development and continuity of the dialogue and peace process taking place in Mexico.”