(Spanish CNN) – The President of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, announced on Tuesday that Colombian businessman Alex Saab will join as a full member of the government delegation in the negotiations he is holding with the opposition in Mexico to seek solutions. to the deep political and social crisis of the country.
CNN requested a reaction from the opposition delegation, but so far we have not received a response.
Rodriguez, who is the head of the Chavista delegation, also said that Saab will also be part of the National Social Care Board, agreed in the first round of negotiations, which seeks to address the serious supply crisis in the southern country. -American.
Saab is a Colombian businessman requested by the United States Department of Justice for money laundering charges and who the government claims is the ringleader of the questioned President Nicolás Maduro.
Saab, which Caracas gave diplomatic rank to, has been imprisoned in Cape Verde since June 2020 due to a red alert from Interpol. The businessman was detained by African island country authorities on a stopover on his trip to Iran, where he was going, according to the Venezuelan government, on a humanitarian mission to acquire basic tickets.
Last week, the Cape Verde Constitutional Court ruled that Saab’s extradition process to the US was in line with law, paving the way for extradition to that country.
Rodriguez said Saab “has been kidnapped for more than 400 days in a prison abroad” and according to him, he has been given this punishment for being “fulfilling functions to obtain medicines, food for the people of Venezuela”; in addition it did not explain how the incorporation of Saab in the negotiation would be obtained that is developed in Mexico considering its legal situation.
“We will immediately officiate the government facilitators of the Kingdom of Norway, the accompanying countries, the Government of the Netherlands and the Government of the Russian Federation, and also the head of the opposition sector delegation based in Mexico. “, said in the press conference the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela.
According to a statement from the U.S. Treasury Department on July 25, 2019, Saab benefited from several “overvalued contracts,” including those from the Local Supply and Production Committees program, Venezuela’s government food subsidy program. , and participated in illicit operations with the gold of this country.
The Colombian businessman’s lawyers claim that his client is innocent and that he has not committed any crime in any country.