The Saab Case: Backroom Deals, U.S. Pressure, and Caracas’s New Line

This week, Venezuela’s president, Delcy Eloína Rodríguez Gómez, removed Álex Saab from his role as minister of Industry and National Production. Saab’s career is a clear example of secretive political dealings.

Photo: Nicolás Maduro and Álex Saab

Most people know little about Álex Naib Saab Morán, a Colombian-Venezuelan citizen of Lebanese descent. Saab’s involvement in Latin American and global politics began during the last years of President Hugo Chávez. He gained the most influence under Nicolás Maduro, but now the interim president, Rodríguez, has decided to remove him from the government.

The way the United States has handled the Saab case shows both public and secret deals among major political players in the region.

The fact that his expulsion from Venezuelan politics came in the first days of interim President Rodríguez’s tenure, and immediately after John Ratcliffe, the head of the U.S. CIA, arrived in Caracas, speaks to Saab’s importance for relations between the two states and to his influence—but also to what is expected of Rodríguez after Maduro was kidnapped and transferred to a U.S. prison.

Saab’s career—including his arrest in Cape Verde, extradition to the United States, release and return to Venezuela, and now his removal from power—shows how complicated relations are between major powers and countries that try to act independently.

Is he a criminal or a hero?

To understand why Saab was swiftly removed from the government in Caracas, we need to go back some twenty years and at least partially illuminate the role of a man whom Washington and Interpol pursued around the world, while the authorities in Venezuela simultaneously proclaimed him a “hero.”

Put simply, Saab was tasked with evading U.S. sanctions. In short, Saab’s job was to help Venezuela avoid U.S. sanctions and manage its trade. Many people think he was more important to Maduro than any other minister and helped the country survive under sanctions. However, authorities and the media accused Saab of crimes like financial fraud, illegal transactions, drug trafficking, money laundering, oil smuggling, and setting up illegal networks in Europe and Asia. This was evidenced by the 2011 meeting between Chávez and his Colombian counterpart, Juan Manuel Santos. The two states agreed on a $530 million housing construction project, and Saab was the contractor. According to media claims, Santos did not know that Saab—who was part of Chávez’s delegation—was also a citizen of Colombia.

During those years, people started paying more attention to Saab, who over the next fifteen years became a central figure in Venezuelan trade, both legal and illegal.

After that, U.S. agencies began tracking Saab and tried to arrest him. He managed to avoid capture for years, but in mid-2020, his plane stopped in Cape Verde to refuel on its return from Iran. Saab landed on the island of Sal, and Washington, through Interpol, requested his extradition and even sent a warship to prevent his escape. For someone of his reputation, this was a surprising mistake.

In October 2021, Saab was extradited to Washington, which Maduro called a “kidnapping.” In response, Maduro left talks with the Venezuelan opposition in Mexico, where lifting sanctions was on the table, and arrested two U.S. citizens who worked for Citgo.

Biden’s prisoner swap and Trump’s hard stance

Many in Venezuela feared Saab would, like other fugitive officials, reveal secrets and align himself with Washington’s agenda. But in Maduro’s view, his trusted man did not do so, even though he appeared before a U.S. court under the threat of a long prison sentence. In December 2023, in a prisoner swap with President Joseph Biden’s administration—after Biden pardoned Saab—he was returned to Venezuela, and by October 2024, he became a minister.

After Trump removed Maduro from Venezuelan politics on January 3, some of his associates are now leaving as well. Delcy Rodríguez has little room to maneuver if she wants to avoid new U.S. attacks on Venezuela, and she must comply with Washington’s demands—at least the major ones.

Last Friday, Ratcliffe visited Caracas and asked for “confidence-building measures,” according to an unnamed Trump administration official. The official also said Ratcliffe and Rodríguez talked about possible economic cooperation and that Venezuela should not be a safe haven for America’s opponents, especially “drug traffickers.”

On Sunday, Rodríguez announced on X that Saab had been dismissed and that his ministry would merge with the Ministry of Trade. “I thank colleague Álex Saab for his work in the service of the homeland,” she wrote, adding that he would get “new assignments,” but did not give details. The investment sector has been handed to a former U.S. student. Calixto Ortega Sánchez is a former head of Venezuela’s central bank and a diplomat in Venezuela’s mission in Houston, the American hub of oil refining.

Can Venezuela’s left survive under Trump?

By removing Saab and appointing someone familiar to Americans, Caracas is clearly signaling a desire for better relations with Washington. For example, yesterday Rodríguez made 28 changes in top military positions, and she has been restructuring the government and state agencies for several days. relations with Washington and business with U.S. oil companies. That does not necessarily mean betraying the interests of Maduro’s policy, which offered cooperation to the American side in exchange for Venezuela’s political independence. The question of how much freedom Latin American leftists truly have in practice, therefore, remains open.

This dilemma also shapes Saab’s story. He did both legal and illegal work for the government. Over about fifteen years, he managed deals worth billions, was arrested and sent to the United States, and later returned to Venezuela to become a minister.

He is not the only one with such a background. Recently, Trump released Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, who was convicted in the U.S. for drug trafficking. That move helped the opposition defeat the left in Honduras’s presidential elections.

That is why it is hardly surprising. This is why some people believe that Maduro and his wife, Cilia, could one day return to Venezuela if Rodríguez and others meet Washington’s expectations. Anything is possible in politics, and secret channels of communication often decisively shape outcomes. Saab did what his government demanded, and now he has been removed from the top of Venezuelan power as a gesture of rapprochement with a former enemy.

Is this just another political move by Venezuela’s left to save what they can from a stronger Trump, or is Rodríguez switching sides? We will find out soon. Saab’s career, and many other cases in Latin American history, show that both options are possible.

This article was published earlier on nap.ba.

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