The dictator of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, appointed this Monday (15) Colombian businessman Alex Saab, freed in December by the United States in a prisoner exchange with Caracas, as the new president of the country's International Center for Productive Investments (CIIP). .
“I announce the appointment of Alex Saab Morán as the new president of the Venezuelan Center for Productive Investment, so that he, with his experience, can help our country bring investments and bring economic strength to the world,” said the Chavista leader during his speech annual report to the National Assembly, the country's Parliament.
The CIIP was created in October 2020 by Maduro with the aim of attracting local and foreign capital to boost the national economy and for the registration, study and monitoring of sanctions imposed on Venezuela's economy.
Saab assumes the presidency of the CIIP in place of Félix Plasencia, who was appointed to the position in March 2023. Upon making the appointment, Maduro said he has “complete confidence” in the ally and reiterated the diplomatic status of the Colombian, member of the delegation of the government for dialogue with the majority opposition.
During his speech, Maduro celebrated what he called the “rescue” of Saab from the “kidnapping” who lived in the USA, where he was imprisoned and was a defendant in a trial for the crime of conspiracy to launder money, in addition to being named as the alleged front man of iron of the Chavista leader.
Saab was extradited in 2021 to the USA from Cape Verde, where he had been detained since June 2020, when the Colombian's plane made a technical stop in the African country on a return trip from Iran to Venezuela. On December 20, the American government released the businessman in a detainee exchange with the Maduro regime, which freed ten Americans and around 20 Venezuelans considered “political prisoners”.
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