The transfer of two military ships to the African island country and the dispatch of gringo agents to that country’s embassy are some of the moves to prevent the businessman from eventually trying to escape from Barranquilla, who is said to be Maduro’s accomplice and figurehead. . the same.
The case of businessman Alex Saab, the Colombian businessman who is said to be the main figurehead of Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan government and who was detained in Cape Verde in June 2020, remains one of the most important in the international geopolitics of the United States. This is evidenced by the recent movements of personnel to control the Barranquilla’s communications and the transit of planes and ships through that African island country to prevent Saab from trying to escape. A fact that, as far as is known, Maduro’s henchman has not tried.
Read: “We assume the US believes Saab has information about Venezuela”: Baltasar Garzón
The relocation of two military ships and the transfer of US agents to the Cape Verde embassy are part of several movements in that country to prevent any escape attempt. According to The New York Times newspaper, it assured a few days ago that the military missile ship San Jacinto had moved to Cape Verde to avoid any attempt to escape from Saab. Currently it is not in the zone. El Tiempo also pointed out that “two friendly European countries have been supporting surveillance in the area since June, when Saab was imprisoned in transit to Iran, where he began to trade gasoline, food and medicine, in light of the pandemic, as well as the aggressive gringo blockade ”.
Saab was captured by Interpol agents on June 13, 2020 when his plane stopped to refuel at Amilcar Cabral International Airport on the island. An arrest warrant against him for alleged money laundering offenses was issued through Interpol from Washington. Born in Barranquilla and of Lebanese descent, Saab is referred to by the United States as the alleged frontman of the Venezuelan president and is related to several companies, including Group Grand Limited (GGL), which is accused of supplying the Maduro regime with food at high prices. and food for the local government supply and production committees (CLAP).
Washington also filed charges against Saab and its right-hand man, Álvaro Enrique Pulido, last July, accusing it of laundering up to $ 350 million allegedly defrauded through Venezuela’s exchange control system. For Garzón, “the avalanche of news in conflict with Saab makes it difficult to recognize the true origin of this circus trial, which is not due to corruption but to an alleged crime of conspiracy to launder assets; a crime which is more than questionable and which could be contrary to the principle of double crime in Cape Verde ”.
According to local newspapers, the Cape Verde judicial police have raided the offices of two key executives from the African country involved in the complex legal process being conducted against Alex Saab in recent hours. They are Fernando Gil Évora and Carlos Gomes Anjos, two men who traveled to Caracas in August 2020 (two months after Saab’s arrest) as alleged envoys of the Cape Verde government to meet Nicolás Maduro and talk about the Saab file.
According to the Cape Verde press, computers, cell phones and documents were seized. When the trip took place last August, that country’s government removed Gil Évora from the board of directors of the state-owned Emprofac. At that time, the authorities of the African country confirmed that the decision on the “immediate” resignation of Gil Évora was taken unanimously “as a result of the violation of the duties inherent to the public administrator and a deviation from the purpose of the functions. “.
Subsequently, the government of that country declared that the government of Cape Verde did not send anyone on a mission to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ”. As far as is known, the two businessmen arrived on a private plane via the presidential terminal in the neighboring country. Dos Anjos and Fernando Gil Alves Évora. The first is the former Cape Verde Tourism and Transport Director and the second is a millionaire businessman in the pharmaceutical sector.