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Context: This article discusses the rise and fall of Alex Saab, a close financial ally of former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Saab played a key role in Venezuela’s dealings with Russia, Iran, and other countries.
Close among the inner circle of the dictator Nicolás Maduro, this finance shark has long been the man capable of circumventing American sanctions and keeping the regime afloat.
Captured and deposed, Nicolas Maduro brings down several of his lieutenants with him in his fall. The Venezuelan government announced on Saturday, May 16, that Alex Saab, a close ally of the former Venezuelan president, has been expelled to the United States, where he faces several criminal investigations. This marks a dramatic turning point for this finance shark, the architect of Venezuela’s ties with Russia and Iran, whom Nicolas Maduro tried to protect until the end.
“Alex Saab’s friends have no explanation for how an ordinary man, with modest aspirations and devoid of any passion except the love for his children, became the finance shark of the Bolivarian Revolution,” explains El País journalist Gerardo Reyes, author of a book about him. Saab’s career, the son of a Lebanese entrepreneur, actually began in Colombia in Barranquilla. Alex Saab is unstoppable. He starts by selling keychains, advertising supports for graduation ceremonies, and then ventures into textiles. Guided by an entrepreneurial instinct, he decides to invest in Venezuela, in the construction sector.
- Alex Saab obtains his first contract in the country in 2011, when he secures the construction of prefabricated housing at the Miraflores Palace, the presidential residence in Caracas. He quickly catches the attention of the powerful: Piedad Córdoba, a former Colombian senator reputed to be close to the then Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, opens the doors of power to him. Lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, now a far-right candidate in the Venezuelan presidential election, also introduces him into the inner circle.
An all-rounder
In a few years, Alex Saab achieves his greatest victory: becoming indispensable to power. “When Venezuela lacked milk, they called on Saab. When there was no more gasoline, they summoned him to solve the problem. And faced with a shortage of foreign currency, the authorities suggested that he find a way to sell gold bars. He then took his plane, or rented another one, and flew off to unload the gold in Turkey. He was the man capable of solving everything,” explains El País. He becomes the secret financier of chavismo, a resourceful man capable of quickly and effectively solving the problems of the sitting government.
But for this, he did not care much about morality. In 2011, he was tasked by Hugo Chavez to import prefabricated materials from Ecuador and Colombia for the “Great Housing Mission,” Chavez’s project to build 2.6 million homes for low-income families. According to Armando. Info, a Venezuelan investigative journalism website, Alex Saab received $159 million from the Venezuelan government to import construction materials between 2012 and 2013. In reality, he only delivered materials worth three million dollars. The houses for which he was responsible were mostly never built, or were built at exorbitant prices.
Fact Check: Alex Saab was captured in June 2020 and his extradition to the United States is potentially complex due to Venezuela’s policy of not extraditing its citizens.
