The interim president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodriguezdismissed the businessman as Minister of Industry this Friday Alex Saabaccused of being a front man for the deposed president Nicolás Maduro.
The change occurs amid pressure from Washington on Caracas after the military incursion that on January 3 ended in the capture of the leftist leader and his wife, Cilia Flores, to bring them to justice in New York.
“I thank my colleague Álex Saab for his work in the service of the Homeland; who will assume new responsibilities,” the interim president wrote on the Telegram messaging platform without specifying which ones.
Originally from Colombia, Saab He had been released from prison in 2023 by Washington as part of an agreement that included the release of 10 Americans imprisoned in Venezuela. Maduro appointed him Minister of Industry in October 2024.
The businessman was linked to the Venezuelan government in the last years of Hugo Chávez’s administration (1999-2013), brought the local oil industry closer to Iran and managed a gigantic import network for the Maduro government.
He was in charge of transporting food from the government program known as CLAP, punctuated by allegations of corruption.
He was arrested in 2020 in Cape Verde and extradited to the United States in October 2021. The US justice system accused him of laundering funds obtained illegally in Venezuela through the North American country. The Maduro government denied these accusations by stating that Saab was a “hero.”
As part of her decision, the interim president announced on Friday the merger of the ministries of Industry and National Production and that of National Commerce, which will be headed by the current head of the latter, the military man Luis Antonio Villegas.
This Friday, Rodríguez appointed Freddy Ñáñez as Minister of EcosocialismAníbal Coronado as the new head of Transportation and Miguel Ángel Pérez Pirela as head of the Communication and Information office.
Ñáñez is another figure close to Maduro. Until this Friday he held the Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information. He was inside the car in which the Chavista leader gave his last interview before the capture, to the intellectual Ignacio Ramonet, in a TV program broadcast by official signals every new year.
He also appointed Captain Juan Escalona, a member of Maduro’s security team, as minister of the Office of the President a few days ago, and the former president of the Central Bank Calixto Ortega as the new vice president of sectoral economics.
Likewise, he dismissed the president’s head of Security, Major General Javier Marcano Tábata, and appointed in his place General Gustavo González López as commander of the Presidential Honor Guard and head of the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence.
From the United States, the Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, María Corina Machado, recalled earlier that it is President Donald Trump who gives the “orders” to Delcy Rodríguez.
In his first press conference after presenting the Nobel medal to the Republican magnate, he said that Venezuela has already begun “a true transition towards democracy.”
Trump, who said Machado does not have enough support among Venezuelans, endorsed former Vice President Rodríguez as interim leader of the oil country after the military incursion.
However, CIA Director John Ratcliffe met with her on Thursday in Caracas to “convey the message that the United States looks forward to an improved working relationship,” a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
As a sign of this rapprochement, a new flight with 231 Venezuelans deported by the United States arrived on Friday at the airport that serves Caracas, the first after the US military incursion.
With agency information
