His announcement came after the businessman Alex Saab was extradited hours before from the African archipelago of Cape Verde towards the United States, which requires it for suspect that he committed money laundering and acted as Maduro’s front man.
Saab, 49, is due to appear in a Florida court tomorrow, the United States Department of Justice reported.
His lawyer Manuel Pinto Monteiro told the AFP news agency that his extradition was illegal because the process in Cape Verde was not fully carried out.
Saab “was put on a US Justice Department plane and sent to that country,” he said.
The US Justice Department plane left the Cape Verde international airport, on the island of Sal, according to that country’s state TV, which indicated that there was a strong police presence on the way to the terminal.
In addition to suspending dialogue with the opposition, Venezuela described the extradition as a “kidnapping” of its “ambassador” as Saab, who is Colombian, received nationality and an ambassadorial title while in captivity in Cape Verde.
Chavismo had tried to add him to its entourage.
“We will not attend the round that was to begin tomorrow, October 17, in Mexico City as a profound expression of our protest against the brutal aggression” against Saab, Rodríguez said in Caracas.
The opposition leader Juan Guaidó, recognized as president in charge of Venezuela by 60 countries, celebrated the extradition.
“Venezuelans, who have seen justice hijacked for years, support and celebrate the justice system of democratic countries such as Cape Verde, a nation that we recognize for its independence and firmness in the midst of so much pressure,” he wrote on Twitter, lamenting the decision. of the Government to get up from the dialogue table.
Saab and its business partner Álvaro Pulido, whose whereabouts are unknown, are accused in the United States of directing a network that exploited food aid destined for Venezuela.
According to Washington, they sent some $ 350 million outside of Venezuela to accounts they controlled in the United States and other countries and risk being sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Saab was indicted in July 2019 in Miami for money laundering and arrested in June 2020 during a plane stopover in Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa.
Cape Verde’s highest court authorized last month to hand over Saab to the United States, after all judicial remedies have been exhausted.
Shortly after the extradition was confirmed, authorities reversed a house-to-jail measure against six former oil executives serving time in Venezuela for corruption and took them to an unknown prison.
Although the measure is not officially related, five of them have US nationality and the other, permanent residence in that country.
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