Colombian Álvaro Pulido, partner of Álex Saab, arrested in the Venezuelan anti-corruption purge

The Government of Nicolás Maduro, through the spokespersons of the State, has continued announcing arrests and prosecutions of Venezuelan public officials involved in the million-dollar fraud of PDVSA-Crypto, a corruption plot that has consisted of the diversion of funds from the sale of oil within the framework of international sanctions against the country, allegedly linked to Tareck El Aissami, vice president of the Economic Area.

The illegals included the Venezuelan Corporation of Guayana and some municipalities.

The capture of the Colombian businessman Álvaro Pulido, contractor of the Venezuelan state and partner of Álex Saab –—requested by the United States for money laundering— is one of the most commented novelties of this new wave of arrests, which also includes some officials from the mayor's office of Baruta, a metropolitan municipality in eastern Caracas controlled by the opposition.

Search file for Álvaro Pulido Vargas, partner of Alex Saab.EFEI0023

The investigative portal Armando.Info had published several reports that reported the diversion of 1.5 billion dollars, both from Pulido and Saab, for transactions related to the sale of Venezuelan oil, in operations similar to the PDVSA-Crypto case.

With these nine additional detainees, there are already 58 public officials presented to the courts in this anti-corruption purge, called

.

The Attorney General, Tarek William Saab, reported that "67 arrest warrants have been issued and 142 judicial searches have been carried out in search of those responsible."

The Minister of Communication and Information, Freddy Náñez, confirmed that a presentation hearing was held for Harold Rafael Sosa Padilla, municipal engineering director of the Baruta mayor's office, and Juan Carlos Posner, deputy director of this municipal instance.

A few days ago, Jorge Rodríguez, president of the Legislative Branch and Maduro's right-hand man, announced in a parliamentary speech that the ongoing investigations could include opposition officials, and asked that "they are not going to come later to turn them into political prisoners."

Along with them, Pulido is named, pointed out in this case as being Hugbel Roa's financial operator, and Pedro Herrera Araque, financial operator and Roa's brother-in-law, one of the disgraced Chavista deputies, and like Pedro Maldonado, Hugo Cabezas, and Pulido himself, El Aissami's chips on the map of revolutionary power.

The Chavista authorities also announced the arrest of Juan Almeida, an expert in digital security, a well-known and feared hacker who uses the nickname N33, also close to El Aissami.

Almeida has been designated along with his brothers, José Luis and Carlos Jesús Almeida Morgado, as "technological operators of the PDVSA-Crypto plot."

In 2021, the Colombian Alvaro Pulido -as he has happened with several other representatives of the regime accused in this process- had been denounced for money laundering and bribery by the United States, which offered rewards of large sums of money for information on the whereabouts of he.

The detainees have been shown to the press wearing orange panties, a modality not seen in the country in the past, and were interned at the headquarters of the Bolivarian Intelligence Service in the El Helicoide prison by the recently created National Anti-Corruption Police.

The Maduro government has not issued further comments on the arrest of Pulido, a partner of Saab, a Colombian businessman detained in Cape Verde, today detained in a federal prison, -to whom Chavismo granted diplomatic status in his efforts- who operated as an agent of the Maduro government to open commercial paths to the Chavista regime in the context of international sanctions, and which is accused by the United States of money laundering and corruption.

Maduro and the high revolutionary government have made the defense of Saab, the insistence on his innocence, and the demand for his release, a state cause, in which millions of dollars have been invested.

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