Venezuelan authorities announced they had deported Alex Saab to the United States on Saturday, saying immigration officials treated him as a Colombian national and removed him because he is implicated in crimes in the US.
Saab, a longtime close ally of former president Nicolás Maduro, ran an extensive import network for the Maduro government and amassed substantial wealth through state contracts. Maduro granted him Venezuelan citizenship and a diplomatic passport, but Venezuelan officials say Saab was born in Colombia and therefore subject to deportation rather than protected by the constitutional ban on extraditing Venezuelan citizens.
Saab was first detained in Cape Verde in 2020 on allegations of money laundering and corruption and was extradited to the United States in 2021. US prosecutors accused him and business partner Álvaro Pulido of operating a scheme that took advantage of Venezuela’s subsidized food program known as CLAP, allegedly laundering some $350 million out of the country. A US judge later tossed most of the charges, but Saab remained charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, a crime that carries up to 20 years in prison.
In December 2023 Saab was freed from US custody as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela and subsequently returned to public life; Maduro appointed him to a Cabinet post the next year. That position was short-lived after a change in Caracas: following Maduro’s ouster and capture by US forces in January, the new interim president, Rodríguez—Maduro’s former vice president—dismissed Saab from the Cabinet and removed all his posts. Saab’s wife, Camilla Fabri, who had served as deputy minister for international communication, was also dismissed in February.
Venezuelan immigration authorities said the deportation was carried out because Saab “is involved in the commission of various crimes in the United States,” describing the action as an administrative deportation based on his Colombian origin. The move bypasses the country’s constitutional prohibition on extraditing Venezuelan nationals by treating him as a foreign citizen.
Saab’s removal to US custody risks deepening fractures within the fragile coalition that now governs Caracas, where debates over accountability, political loyalties and relations with the United States are already intense.