Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has announced that controversial Colombian businessman Alex Saab - imprisoned in the United States on accusations of money laundering and released a month ago in the framework of negotiations between Chavismo, Washington, and the Venezuelan opposition - will become the president of the International Center for Productive Investments of Venezuela.
Maduro's announcement was framed by the annual message of the Presidency of the Republic to Parliament (the so-called Memory and Account), in which he made a somewhat forced emphasis when it came to highlighting the country's economic achievements and many efforts to blame international sanctions for the collapse of wages, hyperinflation and the destruction of the economic apparatus.
"I announce the appointment of Álex Saab Morán as the new president of the Center for Productive Investment of Venezuela. May your experience help our country bring investments and economic strength to the world," Maduro said amid applause before speaking directly to Saab, present at the session of the Federal Legislative Palace: "Alex, I trust you fully."
Saab, turned into a "diplomat" by the Chavista high government after his arrest in Cape Verde in 2020, had until then been one of Maduro's battering rams on the international chessboard at the time of the greatest siege of the Bolivarian revolution. A businessman with investments in various areas and millionaire businesses in Chavista Venezuela, Saab was also an active importer and exporter of products in times of the draconian exchange controls of the government of Hugo Chávez, which lent themselves to serious acts of corruption.
With investigations opened for laundering and diversion of resources in countries such as the United States, Ecuador and Mexico, as well as in his own country, Saab has been accused of placing adulterated and poor quality food in his commercial transactions to integrate the products of the food bags that the Government gave in its social programs to people in extreme poverty. within the framework of a social program known as Clap (Local Committees for Self-Sufficiency and Production).
Miraflores thanks Saab for the international routes that, with his contacts, he was able to open to the Bolivarian revolution to obtain goods and retain power, at a time when the country's humanitarian crisis was more than decreed, but Maduro did not want to recognize it. At that time, PDVSA had already gone bankrupt and the shortage of products had worsened dramatically, after the failure of the model of controls, nationalizations and communal management.
The International Center for Productive Investments (CIIP), which already has its headquarters in El Rosal, the financial district of Caracas, is one of several instances of the government and the national private sector theoretically destined for this purpose, in a country that has the lowest levels of foreign investment in South America. For years, Chavismo has spent a lot of time fighting with capital, expropriating assets and placing businessmen in a state of suspicion.
With this new position, with a "plenipotentiary" bias, as in the past, Maduro is assigning neuralgic responsibilities in the management of his government to one of his most trusted people. As long as the delicate balance of the Barbados agreements allows it, Alex Saab will be able to operate again for the Venezuelan state without international sanctions. Alex Saab will also be, as Jorge Rodríguez has announced, one of the leaders of the PSUV and a full member of the Chavismo negotiating team in its talks with the Venezuelan opposition in Mexico.
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