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!”

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St. Paul, MN – On September 24, cars participated in the Women Against Military Madness’ Solidarity Committee of the Americas (SCOTA) and the MN Cuba Committee’s monthly car caravans to show solidarity with Cuba, demand an end to the 60-year blockade against Cuba and that Cuba be taken off the U.S.’ state sponsor of terrorism list.

This month, this caravan’s focus was on FBI repression which is ramping up against Cuba solidarity activists.

People gathered in a parking lot located at Griggs-Midway building on University Avenue, a main street which is home to Saint Paul’s working-class residents and lined with predominantly Asian and Black-owned businesses and homes.

They decorated their eight cars with signs, “Cuba si, bloqueo no,” “U.S. Hands off Cuba” and “End the blockade on Cuba,” and Cuban flags and piled into the vehicles.

As the caravan left the parking lot, they stayed in contact through Zoom, chanting out the windows and honking. The people on the streets saw cars with the Cuban flags flying from the windows and heard chants of “Cuba si, bloqueo no,” “Let Cuba Live,” “2-4-6-8, Cuba is not a terrorist state” and “End the blockade on Cuba.”

The route included a stop at the Minnesota State Capitol; the protesters stepped out of their cars with the capitol building in the backgr