Miami, FL – Alex Saab, a Venezuelan diplomat, is now free after long negotiations between Venezuela’s government and the U.S. State Department. Saab flew back to Venezuela on Wednesday, December 20 into the waiting arms of his wife, Camilla Fabri Saab. He will be able to hug his children after more than three years of detention and imprisonment by the U.S. government.

It will be a hero’s welcome for Alex Saab when President Nicolás Maduro greets him at Miraflores Palace for all the country to celebrate his strength and determination. Saab is a man who humbly served the people of Venezuela by negotiating with Iran and other countries for food and medicine, as well as technologies for the oil industry to be rebuilt. Due to U.S.-imposed sanctions on the Venezuelan economy, President Nicolas Maduro enlisted Saab to barter oil and gold to defeat the U.S.-imposed economic crisis.

U.S. sanctions against Venezuela are currently crumbling as the White House needs Venezuelan oil for its European allies. The U.S. created its own crisis however, through the funding and arming of the war in Ukraine and now the Israeli genocide in Palestine, angering the world.

Venezuela wants its economy to meet the needs of its people instead of just making profits for banks and companies on Wall Street or in the city of London. The U.S. goal since President Hugo Chavez first launched the Bolivarian Revolution in 1999 has been to strangle all progress. The Bolivarian Revolution has created productive farms to feed people instead of importing 80% of food, built 4 million new apartments and small houses with running water and electricity, provided public education through high school, 13 new public universities, basic health care for all, and new productive industries other than oil extraction.

In fact, Alex Saab is largely responsible for the failure of U.S. economic sanctions targeting Venezuela and the U.S. was out to punish him. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency tried to recruit him to do their dirty work, but he would not bend. So, the U.S. illegally seized Saab in June 2020 from an airplane in Cape Verde off the coast of Africa. U.S. officials rifled through his diplomatic pouch and belongings while local police detained and imprisoned him.

The U.S. government then renditioned Saab to Miami in October 2021, because the newly-elected President of Cape Verde promised to free him. Ever since, Saab sat in a federal holding cell, appearing at a Miami court hearing beginning December 12, 2022, where the U.S. judge bowed to U.S. State Department and White House demands, ignoring the law and mountains of evidence showing Saab was a special envoy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

News sources are reporting that Venezuela will release some Americans, including two former Green Berets and mercenaries who attempted a failed invasion of Venezuela. They were backed by Miami-based companies when Donald Trump was president. The mercenaries were swiftly captured in their boats, disarmed by local Bolivarian militias, and handed over to authorities.

Besides negotiations for oil and prisoners, the U.S. is also attempting to impose their chosen candidate for president on Venezuela, despite that person being disqualified for breaking election laws.

Tom Burke of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “This is a great day for Alex Saab, for Camilla and her children, and for the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela! It shows that international solidarity is powerful!”

#MiamiFL #International #Venezuela #AlexSaab #Sanctions #FRSO #Feature

Minneapolis, MN – On May 7, a couple dozen activists gathered at the busy intersection of Minneapolis’ Chicago and Lake Streets for a rally as part of the international “Week for Alex Saab” called by the Committee to Free Alex Saab. Speakers from different movements gave messages of solidarity with Venezuela’s kidnapped diplomat and connected Alex Saab’s struggle to a broader history of U.S. imperialism and repression. Many cars honked in support of the “Hands off Venezuela” signs and passersby stayed to listen to the speeches.

Sarah Martin of the Women Against Military Madness Solidarity Committee of the Americas spoke first, stating, “We’re here today because we understand the fight to free Alex Saab, end sanctions on Venezuela, the blockade of Cuba and U.S. imperialism in Latin America are connected to and important to our struggles for a better life in the U.S.” Martin detailed her trips to Venezuela over the years, painting an optimistic portrait of the Bolivarian revolution’s accomplishments with regard to expanding food sovereignty, poverty alleviation, free and low-cost housing and medical care.

Next, Mike Madden of the Twin Cities Assange Defense Committee and Veterans for Peace Chapter 27 made connections with the fight to free imprisoned journalist Julian Assange, and also spoke to the hypocrisy of the White House’s 2021 declaration that “diplomacy is back” under the Biden administration, stating, “The United States is now undermining the fundamental underpinnings that make international diplomacy possible. With the kidnapping of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, the United States is showing the world once again that it is above the law and that the protocols established by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations do not apply to our exceptional nation.”

Bruce Nestor, member and former president of the National Lawyers Guild, spoke about the case of the Cuban Five, who were political prisoners held by the U.S. from 1998 until 2014 when the final men were released after years of sometimes small, sometimes large grassroots solidarity actions and a long legal fight.

Nestor also spoke about the U.S. weaponization of human rights in pursuit of its imperialist agenda, saying that the U.S. government claims, “’We're adopting sanctions and allowing Venezuelans to die en masse because we're concerned about human rights in Venezuela.’ It has nothing to do with human rights. It has everything to do with maintaining the U.S. economic control, through the International Monetary Fund, through the control of the dollar, which is the objective of the United States.”

Kelly Thomas of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar expressed support for Alex Saab’s freedom and told the crowd that repression and abusing political prisoners is a matter of routine for the U.S. government. Thomas stated, “Internationally, the state uses its military power to suppress people. And domestically, the state uses militarized police forces, including the National Guard, to suppress its own citizens.” Thomas spoke about community control of the Minneapolis Police, as a way to fight back. TCC4J continues to gather signatures to move that struggle forward locally.

Sorcha Lona, an organizer from the University of Minnesota chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), connected Saab’s detention in the Miami detention center to the current political repression aimed at the students of Florida State University known as the Tampa 5.

Finally, the MN Anti-War Committee’s Andrew Josefchak stated, “The U.S. would like to be able to imprison any diplomat, any government official, any head of state, just because it wants to. So, while the U.S. claims to be spreading democracy around the world with sanctions and starvation and bombs and bullets, in reality, it has declared itself the sole dictator of which governments count and which ones don't, no matter what the people of those countries themselves have to say about it.” Josefchak ended his speech with spirited chants of “Hands off Venezuela!” and “Free Alex Saab!”

The rally was initiated by the Anti-War Committee and endorsed by Veterans for Peace Chapter 27, Twin Cities Assange Defense Committee, Women Against Military Madness, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, and the UMN chapter of SDS.

The protest was organized as a part of the Committee to Free Alex Saab’s international week of action. Events took place across the country including Washington D.C., New York City, Dayton OH, Dallas TX, Milwaukee WI, Grand Rapids WI, Miami FL, and Vancouver BC Canada, among others.

#MinneapolisMN #Venezuela #AlexSaab #Americas

Grand Rapids, MI – The Committee to Free Alex Saab is calling all anti-war and international solidarity activists, community and immigrant rights organizers, labor unionists and students to join in an international week of action to Free Alex Saab.

Alex Saab is a Venezuelan diplomat who has been illegally kidnapped and imprisoned by the U.S. government for his work securing food, fuel, medicine and other basic necessities in defiance of the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela. Saab has now been detained for more than 1000 days, unable to see doctors or family members, and his health is rapidly declining. The denial of Saab’s diplomatic status is a direct attack on the sovereignty of Venezuela and a test-case for future acts of aggression against sovereign states; if the U.S. succeeds in prosecuting Saab, it will have a legal precedent to take similar actions against the representatives of any state it decrees to be “illegitimate.”

Minneapolis Anti-War Committee member Andrew Josefchak stated, “Alex Saab is a diplomat. The U.S. is saying that he isn’t a real diplomat because they don’t recognize the Venezuelan government as legitimate, as if the U.S, is the one who decides whether or not people get to elect their own leaders. He’s now been arrested and detained for more than 1000 days for providing his people with food and medicine. That’s not a crime, that’s heroism. Alex Saab needs to be allowed to see his family, to see a doctor, and more than anything to be set free immediately.”

The Committee to Free Alex Saab has called for activists to speak about freedom for Alex Saab at International Workers Day rallies and marches, hand out fliers and information, hold “Free Alex Saab!” signs, and lift banners of Alex Saab on campuses, busy street corners, or overpasses and hold educational events.

Tom Burke, organizational secretary of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, stated “There is a growing movement to free Alex Saab. We know of eight cities doing some sort of action. There will be speeches to free Alex Saab at International Workers’ Day rallies, some will show a movie about Venezuela’s brave diplomat, others will do outreach on campus to educate students. We want others around the world to join us in telling President Biden to let Saab go!”

Campaign members are available to provide material and speakers for teach-ins, interviews, panel-calls and rallies. Video documentaries and leafleting materials are also available to local movements on request. Reach out to FightBackforAlexSaab@gmail.com for information or materials.

End the U.S. Blockade of Venezuela!

Free Alex Saab!

Sanctions are an Act of War!

#GrandRapidsMI #Venezuela #AlexSaab #Americas

Caracas, Venezuela – It has now been more than 1000 days since Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab was first kidnapped by the U.S. government on the island of Cabo Verde, off the west coast of Africa. Since then, he’s been subjected to physical, psychological and chemical torture and moved to a federal detention center in Miami, Florida.

Two members of Minnesota's Anti-War Committee met with Saab’s wife, Camilla Fabri Saab, on Tuesday, March 7, alongside a delegation from the Alliance for Global Justice and progressive lawyers with the Free Alex Saab Movement. Camilla, Fabri Saab, mother to their two young daughters, provided updates on his case, emphasizing that his health has taken a severe turn for the worse.

Saab is missing several teeth due to beatings and has been denied access to all medical treatment beyond aspirin. Camilla’s account of the weaponization of psychiatric treatment in the Miami Detention Center was particularly shocking. First U.S. officials tortured Saab, then they diagnosed him with PTSD resulting from the torture that they themselves inflicted. Using that diagnosis as a pretext, Saab was forced to take pills which made him feel exhausted, dizzy and nauseous to such a degree that he was sometimes unable to even speak on the phone. Prison staff refused to tell him what was in these pills, and it was only after Alex Saab's lawyers intervened that this chemical torture ended.

Saab is a diabetic cancer survivor, making the Miami FDC’s decision to deny him medical attention especially cruel and life-threatening. Four weeks ago, he began to vomit blood. Despite this, he is still being denied the right to see a doctor. Saab’s rapidly deteriorating health means that the urgency of his fight for freedom intensifies day by day.

Everything indicates that this medical mistreatment is intentional U.S. policy, an extension of efforts to immiserate the Venezuelan people as a whole. The dark irony of Saab being deprived of healthcare is that he is being targeted for his efforts to bring exactly that – healthcare – to the people of Venezuela. Under a U.S.-led blockade that prevented Venezuela from importing basic goods like food, medicine, fuel and agricultural supplies, many Venezuelans suffered tremendously. Saab traveled the world as a diplomat for the Venezuelan government in order to secure the basic, critical supplies needed to save Venezuelans from starvation and death by preventable illnesses.

Camilla also provided the Anti-War Committee with an internal U.S. government email from Elliot Abrams, a neoconservative and former U.S. Special Representative for Venezuela. She described this email as a “smoking gun.” District Judge Robert Scola’s ruling against Alex Saab in December of last year relied on the assertion that he is not a diplomat and thus doesn’t have any diplomatic immunity. In the email Camilla presented, however, Abrams admits that Saab was in possession of a diplomatic passport and suggests that the U.S. will have to find a way to discredit the passport, such as claiming that it is a fake, in order to successfully prosecute him. The case against Alex Saab has been clearly politically motivated and illegal from the beginning, but this new evidence is concrete proof.

Since the visit, Camilla and the Free Alex Saab Movement have continued the fight, holding the U.S. government squarely responsible for Saab’s life. Their current demands are:

For the International Committee of the Red Cross to send a representative to the Miami Detention Center; for the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights to denounce Saab’s imprisonment as an illegal detention and a violation of human rights; for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to denounce the illegal detention of a diplomat by the U.S. as a violation of international law; and, immediate freedom for Alex Saab.

Activists in the U.S. know we cannot rely on the legal system to do its job and free Alex Saab. The U.S. government willingly violated international law. It will take a concerted, popular struggle for Saab to see his family again. The Free Alex Saab Movement is calling for activists to take to the streets for a National Week of Action from May 1-7 to build the movement and show U.S. leaders that we will not stand by while Saab, and Venezuelan people as a whole, are criminally attacked.

Free Alex Saab!

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #Venezuela #AlexSaab #BolivarianRepublicOfVenezuela #Americas

New Orleans, LA – On March 11, protesters took to the streets to demand the release of Venezuelan diplomat and political prisoner Alex Saab. The march began at Armstrong Park, where activist Simon Miscenich of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke on the details of Alex Saab’s kidnapping and impending trial.

The U.S. ordered Saab’s illegal imprisonment in Cabo Verde in June 2020. He was on his way to Iran, where he would negotiate access to food, medicine and other vital goods, which U.S. trade sanctions bar Venezuelans from accessing. Saab was extradited to the U.S. in October 2021, and he still awaits trial in Miami, Florida to face false charges of “money laundering” – a charge the U.S. frequently asserts against political foes. March 9, 2023 marked 1000 days since Saab’s unjust imprisonment.

After hearing details of Saab’s case, activists took to the street and marched several blocks. They held a lane of traffic and chanted alongside cars, “One, two three, four! We won’t pay for sanction war!” and “Free, free Alex Saab!”

Finally, the group gathered in front of a monument of Simon Bolivar on Canal Street, which was gifted to New Orleans by Venezuela in 1957. Antonia Mar, another member of FRSO, connected the kidnapping of Alex Saab and the strangling sanctions on Venezuela to a long history of U.S. imperialism in Latin America. The U.S. has historically attempted to bend the continent to its own will for economic gain, but Mar stated, “The Venezuelan government refuses to be subservient to U.S. hegemony, refuses to be victimized by the U.S.’s attempts to gain control over the country.”

The march concluded with several chants calling to “Free Alex Saab!” and “End the killer sanctions now!”

#NewOrleansLA #Venezuela #AlexSaab #BolivarianRepublicOfVenezuela #Americas

In his ruling, Judge Scola wrote, “Saab Moran cannot be entitled to diplomatic immunity because he could not – as a matter of law – have been an agent of the Venezuelan government. At the time of his arrest, Saab Moran was, at best, a special envoy of the Maduro regime, which the United States has not recognized to be the official government of Venezuela since January 2019. So, Saab Moran is not entitled to diplomatic immunity in the United States.”

Tom Burke with the Campaign to Free Alex Saab said, “It is clear the White House and State Department are criminalizing the Venezuelan diplomat responsible for defeating U.S. sanctions. Alex Saab made big trade deals that brought food, medicine, oil industry machine parts, and other materials to Venezuela in exchange for oil and gold. Saab defeated every U.S. effort to strangle the Venezuelan economy. Saab helped to advance the Bolivarian revolution, benefiting all the working people and their children, and U.S. leaders aren't happy about that.”

Cassia Laham, a Miami anti-war activist, said, “The U.S. government’s legal arguments were weak and pathetic. In any other court, in any other country, Alex Saab would have walked free. The judge's ruling proved the political nature of this case and of Saab's kidnapping. The U.S. deems Venezuela a ‘national security threat’ simply because it takes care of its own people without bowing to the dictates of U.S. imperialism. And this can only be done with the help of heroes like Alex Saab.”

In June of 2020, the U.S. government blocked Alex Saab’s plane, which was in route to Iran, forcing it to land in Cape Verde. Saab was on his way to Iran on behalf of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to secure resources and humanitarian goods for the people of Venezuela. Then it asked Cape Verde's government to arrest Saab and detain him. The next day an Interpol arrest warrant suddenly appeared. U.S. intelligence agents rifled through Saab’s belongings and opened his Venezuelan government diplomatic pouch and sealed documents, an outrage to diplomats everywhere.

Then, in October 2021, the U.S. renditioned Saab to Miami, Florida despite there being no extradition treaty between the United States and Cape Verde. This occurred one day before an election in Cape Verde where the leading candidate promised to release Saab if elected.

Since then, Saab's defense team has tried challenge this illegal farce by proving his status as a diplomat. All indications are that Judge Scola’s ruling was a foregone conclusion discussed at the highest levels of the Biden White House and Antony Blinken's State Department.

 There will be an appeal from Alex Saab’s defense team, including the thorough fact-based defense arguments of Jonathan New. This, though, will force Alex Saab to sit in a Miami prison cell for many weeks, perhaps months longer than the 900 days the U.S. has already detained him.

Laham said, “Alex Saab is being punished by the U.S. empire because he was successful at beating U.S. sanctions. He is one of many political prisoners being held in U.S. prisons and we know he will not find justice inside a U.S. courtroom.”

#MiamiFL #Venezuela #PoliticalPrisoners #sanctions #AlexSaab #BolivarianRepublicOfVenezuela #Americas