The Venezuelan government has decided to suspend negotiations with the opposition after President Nicolas Maduro’s envoy, Alex Saab, was extradited from Cape Verde to the United States. Saab is a Venezuelan citizen born in Colombia who works as an entrepreneur and subsidizes food. The US Department of Justice has charged Saab with money laundering. He lived in Cape Verde for about 16 months after being detained by the authorities. Alex Saab being held by the Cape Verde Regime and arrested in June 2020 when its plane stopped in Cape Verde to refuel. On Saturday (16/10) at around 4:53 p.m. local time, Flight Aware data showed a plane belonging to the US Department of Justice took off from Cape Verde with Saab.
Saab was part of a negotiating team between Venezuela’s government and opposition in Mexico in September. In a memo on Saturday, the Venezuelan government called Saab’s extradition an attempt to thwart progress in negotiations between the government and the opposition to end the political crisis. Maduro’s government has highlighted the extradition as “kidnapping” and vowed to take further action. Cape Verde’s supreme court ruled on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, to extradite fugitive Alex Saab to the United States. Cape Verde is a country on the west coast of Africa. Saab’s lawyers called the US allegations politically motivated. At a regional court in West Africa in March 2021, it was decided that Saab’s detention was illegal. Because the notice from Interpol about his arrest was issued a day after he was detained.
The Alex Saab case shows how America needs political innovation right now. Realizing that the politics of innovation continues to be encouraged. At the practical level, this is certainly a challenge for all administrators and cadres throughout the archipelago. The participation of cadres in playing social media, for example, is something that must be mainstreamed. This can be maximized on the social agenda of the program to absorb public aspirations. The emphasis is that through technology the cadres not only use it for contestation events but more than that can make it a public bridge where political education can be carried out.