Alex Saab

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Alex Saab is a Colombian businessman and Venezuelan diplomat who is instrumental in securing Venezuela access to international trade, who has been illegally detained at the request of the imperialist United States for supposed "money laundering."[1][2][3][4] This arrest has been condemned by the Venezuelan president. The English wikipedia page for him is pushing the western narrative, and is basically a hit piece. The anti-imperialist media paints the alternative picture of his affairs.

Support campaign

Venezuelan support

Shortly after his detention, on 14 June, the foreign affairs minister appointed by Maduro, Jorge Arreaza, tweeted in support of Alex Saab, labeling his arrest as "arbitrary" and "illegal".[5][6] Journalist Roberto Deniz expressed surprise by the declaration, saying that after years denying or ignoring its relationship with Saab, the government now called him a "government agent" and a "Venezuelan citizen".[7][8]

After Alex Saab's detention, the Venezuelan government started deploying a support campaign in favour of Saab, using government social media accounts and filled Caracas with billboards, murals and graffitis to ask for his liberation. The government designed a communication campaign to build an alternative narrative of Saab's affair, showing him as an ally entrepreneur with diplomatic powers that with his efforts had managed to evade economic sanctions and made possible the arrival of food and industrial parts to Venezuela.[9]

In February 2021, the Venezuelan government organized a concert in support of Alex Saab in Caracas' Diego Ibarra Square,[9][10] asking for his release. Two ruling party deputies visited Nigeria's embassy in Venezuela, also asking for his liberation.[10] Saab's wife, Italian model Camila Fabbri, moved to Moscow with her family.[11]

The same month, Salva Foods employees, which operate in La Guaira Port and are in charge of both importing and assembling CLAP boxes, denounced on 3 February that they were threatened by the company's board with massive layoffs and labor benefits removal if they refused to participate in videos or protests to demand the release of Alex Saab, who is related to the company.[12]

In June 2021, the Venezuelan government started a YouTube series dedicated to Saab.[13]

International support

On Feb 4, 2022, Alliance for Global Justice (AGJ) interviewed Alex Saab's spouse Camila Saab.[14]

In April 2022, the AGJ hosted a webinar to further promote the case of Alex Saab. Panelists include Alfred de Zayas (former rapporteur on Venezuela for United Nations Human Rights Council), Suzanne Adely (President of the National Lawyers Guild), Oscar Lopez Rivera (former Puerto Rican political prisoner and Honorary Chair of the Free Alex Saab Campaign), and Jaribu Hill (human rights attorney and founder of the Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights Organizers’ Conference)[15]

References