Venezuela’s government has suspended internationally sponsored negotiations with the opposition and revoked the house arrest of six American prisoners after the US extradited a close ally of president Nicolås Maduro to face money laundering charges.
Venezuela’s chief negotiator Jorge Rodriguez said in a televised statement that his side would not attend the next round of talks due to be held in Mexico City on Sunday. This followed news that Alex Saab, a Venezuelan envoy, had been flown to the US on Saturday from the West African island of Cape Verde, where he was arrested last year.
The delegation’s withdrawal is the latest blow to the Mexico negotiations, which are intended to try to find a solution to the political crisis which has engulfed Venezuela since Maduro was accused of clinging to power in a rigged election in 2018.
As part of a broader retaliation for Saab’s extradition, Venezuela also revoked the house arrest of six American executives of the Citgo oil company who have been held in Venezuela since 2017 and sentenced to long jail terms on what the US government regards as trumped-up charges.
One of the relatives of Tomeu Vadell said in an interview that the Venezuelan police came to their home on Saturday afternoon and took the executive away. His current whereabouts are not known.
“Maduro may imagine that he will be able to negotiate a hostage exchange [for Saab], using the case of the Citgo executives. But I think that is most unlikely to happen,” said Phil Gunson, a Caracas-based senior analyst at the International Crisis Group.
Saab, a 49-year-old Colombian-born businessman, was arrested in Cape Verde when his plane stopped to refuel in June 2020 while on a mission to Venezuela’s close ally Iran.
Venezuela has described him as a diplomat on a humanitarian mission and has accused the US and Cape Verde of illegally kidnapping him, torturing him and