Alex Saab: US releases ally of Venezuelan President Maduro

The United States has released a close aide of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro as part of a prisoner swap, AP news agency reports.

The aide, Alex Saab, was accused of laundering money on behalf of the Maduro government, which he denied.

He was extradited to the US in 2021 after being arrested during a stopover in Cape Verde.

The businessman was reportedly freed in exchange for the release of a number of US citizens held in Venezuela.

Reuters news agency quoted a "high-level Venezuelan source" as saying that 36 prisoners would walk free, 12 of them US citizens.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he expected "good news".

"We want to make sure that our fellow Americans are released. We are also focused on political prisoners in Venezuela, and trying to ensure their release," he told journalists.

The Maduro government has long demanded the release of Mr Saab, whom it describes as a "diplomat".

The Colombian-born businessman was on his way to Iran when he was detained on an Interpol "red notice" while his plane refuelled in Cape Verde in 2020.

The Venezuelan government described him as an "envoy" and argued that he had been travelling to Iran to buy medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

But Cape Verde ruled that he did not have diplomatic status and extradited him to the US, where he was charged with money laundering and bribery.

According to US prosecutors, Mr Saab siphoned off $350m (£276m) from Venezuelan government contracts by fraudulently using favourable exchange rates.

He then allegedly laundered the money in the US before finally transferring it to accounts controlled by him and his alleged associate.

The US treasury department has described Mr Saab as a "profiteer orchestrating a vast corruption network" that it says enabled "President Nicolás Maduro and his regime to significantly profit from food imports and distribution in Venezuela".

Mr Saab has denied the charges and the Maduro government has stood by him, even walking out of US-backed talks with the Venezuelan opposition in protest at Mr Saab's extradition in 2021.

This is not the first prisoner swap the US and Venezuela have agreed.

In October 2022, Venezuela freed seven jailed US citizens in exchange for the release of two nephews of Mr Maduro's wife.

Known as the "narco-nephews", the two men had been serving 18-year sentences in the US for attempting to smuggle cocaine into the US.

Relations between the two countries eased further in October this year when the US agreed to loosen its sanctions on Venezuela in exchange for President Maduro agreeing to allow international observers to monitor next year's presidential election.

But the US has since reiterated its demand that US citizens "wrongfully detained" in Venezuela be freed and threatened to reimpose sanctions if progress was not made on the issue.

Human rights groups in Venezuela have reacted to the news by demanding that the close to 300 people they list as political prisoners in Venezuelan jails also be freed.