Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, accompanied by freed diplomat Alex Saab and his wife Camilla Fabri, holds a press conference at the Federal Legislative Palace, Caracas, December 21, 2023. Photo: RedRadioVE.
The president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Jorge Rodríguez, denounced the crimes against humanity committed against diplomat Alex Saab, who was freed after three years in prison in Cape Verde and the United States.
“Sooner rather than later, we must know who was responsible for the crimes against humanity committed against our diplomat Alex Saab,” stated Rodríguez, plenipotentiary head of the Venezuelan government delegation for the dialogue with the opposition. He made this statement at a press conference held in the Federal Legislative Palace in Caracas, in the company of Saab and his wife, Camilla Fabri, on Thursday, December 21, the day after the diplomat was freed from the United States.
“What our diplomat Alex Saab lived through constitutes crimes against humanity and we are not going to let them pass,” Rodríguez said.
He reported that three of Saab’s teeth were knocked out in prison. There were even incidents when towels were placed in his mouth to cause asphyxiation. Rodríguez added that the evidence of all these crimes is being collected and will be made public in due time.
Rodríguez emphasized that Saab should never have been abducted and held for a single day in Cape Verde, where the government, servile to the US empire, handed him over for illegal extradition to the United States.
“He should never have been abducted and held in the United States of America for even one day and subjected to inhumane treatment to harm his spirit, his soul, his strength as a good man,” Rodríguez stated. “He should not have been there for even one day. And, of course, the psychotic Venezuelan and US extreme right gloated, as if mistreatment of a person was something praiseworthy for them, they enjoyed every time they referred to our kidnapped diplomat.”
He asked for a round of applause for the diplomat and recalled that in “the midst of the most brutal blockade” suffered by Venezuela, the person responsible for bringing food and supplies to Venezuela was Alex Saab.
“We had to go all over the world to get the food that was not being sold to us by the lackey governments of the United States,” he stressed.
The president of the Venezuelan National Assembly cited the memoirs of former US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who acknowledged the crimes against humanity committed by the Trump administration. He added that soon evidence of the involvement of Venezuelan ultra-right leaders Juan Guaidó and Julio Borges in the abduction of Alex Saab and the interception of planes and ships by the US empire will be presented.
Rodríguez said that in 2020, the United States government did everything to make sure that Venezuelans would die of hunger, and Mark Esper’s book contains a confession of this. “This criminal says it with great pride, the gringo criminals confess their crimes with books,” Rodríguez stated. However, he pointed out that Alex Saab was able to make arrangements with allied countries to supply the Venezuelan people with fuel, masks, medicines, and food during the pandemic.
Therefore, during the pandemic, despite to the blockade, Venezuela managed to receive vaccines. Rodríguez also pointed out that during that time, there was no lack of CLAP bags (food and basic items subsidized by the Venezuelan government) for each family to cope with the pandemic. “Saab was one of the main persons who made it possible for this food to arrive in the midst of the most brutal blockade, when neighboring countries such as Colombia, Argentina, Mexico were forbidden to sell to us, and as they were under the boots of Donald Trump, they stopped doing so,” the parliamentarian added.
He also spoke about the US hand behind Venezuela’s suffering from lack of fuel in 2020. “Elliot Abrams told me in Bermuda, he said ‘we are going to put so much pressure on you that we will make you disappear; you do not know what we can do to you. We will starve you, we will not allow any aircraft to fly over Venezuela, we will not allow even a single liter of fuel to arrive.'”
He blamed Juan Guaidó for supporting such measures and applauding the crisis that caused suffering for millions of Venezuelans.
Behind the scenes
In view of “the level of wickedness” of the US empire, Rodríguez said that an arduous and difficult negotiation to free Alex Saab began, which would last more than two years. “Behind the scenes there was an immense effort for the defense of Alex Saab, from the legal point of view. This is one of the most serious cases ever known on this planet,” he said.
“There was not a single day during these 1,280 days that President Maduro did not give instructions to different representatives of the Bolivarian Revolution to achieve the rescue of Alex Saab,” he continued. “There was not a single day when we did not denounce the savage torture and inhumane treatment to which he was subjected in the US; not a single day when we did not call out the unhealthy intention of some who call themselves Venezuelans and are hyenas, vultures, scavengers and carrion eaters, gloating in the mistreatment of another human being, happy because they had Saab in Miami.”
“Venezuela did prove the crimes committed by the US citizens who were exchanged,” Rodríguez pointed out. “Two of them were terrorists who disembarked on the coast of Macuto [Operation Gideon]. If I were Juan Guaidó I would move out of Miami, because he owed them, remember that the invasion was going to cost 50 million, but Juan Guaidó was supposed to give two million and he did not pay them, he forgot all about them.”
He also referred to J.J. Rendón who was involved in the coup attempt and he also owed the terrorists money.
He highlighted that the US detainees were treated with dignity and respect for human rights although they had entered Venezuela with weapons.
Venezuela Brings Home Alex Saab in Exchange for Releasing Convicted US Mercenaries
Torturers identified
The Venezuelan parliamentarian reported that those who committed crimes against humanity against diplomat Alex Saab in Cape Verde have been identified. “The two chiefs of these torturers, who were fair and had blue or green eyes, have been identified,” he said. He added that the prison director is also responsible, “who by the way was changed, after a Human Rights Commission made an inspection of the conditions in which Alex was held.”
Rodríguez also highlighted the responsibility of the government of Cape Verde in the matter, and added that there are suspicions that on October 16, 2021, “when Saab was abducted for the second time and taken to Miami, one of the main reasons why he was immediately deported, was that the following day there were elections in Cape Verde, and everything indicated that the delinquent and lackey government that was there was going to be defeated.”
“I hope the US has changed its habit of not believing us when we tell them things,” Rodríguez continued. “We told them if they take Alex to Miami, we will leave the dialogue table. I said it to a man named James Story, whom almost nobody remembers anymore; I said it to the leaders of the Venezuelan right wing; I said it to Dr. Gerardo Blyde, head of the opposition delegation at the dialogue; I said it to the Norwegian facilitators, to European leaders, that we would leave the table, as we indeed did.”
He stressed that the government returned to the Mexico Talks after talks with the US government had already started. “We could not say it at that time,” he added.
However, he emphasized that the Venezuelan government will never surrender to US demands because “we are the heirs of the liberators of America and we are always going to resist.”
Alex Saab incorporated in government delegation for Mexico Talks
Rodríguez further announced that Alex Saab and his wife, Camilla Fabri de Saab have been incorporated as plenipotentiary members of the government delegation for the Mexico Talks.
“By instruction of the president of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, Alex Saab is incorporated as plenipotentiary member of the government delegation for the dialogue in Mexico, and we have taken the decision to maintain as plenipotentiary member of the dialogue in Mexico Camila Fabri de Saab who has had a very outstanding record, especially in social matters,” Rodríguez announced.
The Barbados Agreement
Referring to the Barbados Agreement signed on October 17 between the Venezuelan government and the Unitary Platform of the opposition, Rodríguez emphasized that the Venezuelan government has complied with all the points contemplated in the agreement.
“The document dictates that the parties that commit themselves to sign it, do so in strict respect for peace, for their rejection of violence and violent forms of action, for their rejection of coups d’état, and absolute respect for the Constitution and its institutions,” Rodríguez pointed out. “I suppose that is why there are those who say they are not in the Barbados agreement, there are some politicians of the Venezuelan extreme right who say so. But therein lies the spirit that embraces us all.”
He explained that within the framework of the Barbados Agreement, another document was drawn up in which Venezuelan institutions are recognized. “The recognition of the Supreme Court of Justice, so we do not have to resort to the celestial court, but to the Political Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice,” the parliamentarian went on. “In this document it is expressly stated that any person must comply and refrain from denigrating the institutions, the Presidency of the Republic, the National Assembly, the National Council, the Moral Power.”
When asked about the dates of the elections, Rodríguez said that what is established in the aforementioned agreement will be respected. “We have always said that we want an election free of sanctions,” he stressed. “There are still almost 900 sanctions on us. We want a fair election where the candidates have the same right, yet President Maduro does not have the right to free transit because he is under death threat.”
He added that the Venezuelan electoral system is absolutely verifiable and trustworthy.
(Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
