( Spanish) — Camila Fabri, the wife of Alex Saab, warned that the state of health of the businessman of Colombian origin – who is detained in the United States on a charge related to money laundering – has deteriorated and that he requires urgent medical attention.
Saab’s wife asked the US government for “a gesture” to change her husband’s condition so that he can return home.
When asked by if she was looking into the possibility of a US-Venezuelan prisoner exchange, she responded that “there really could be a humanitarian gesture, a diplomatic gesture, a political gesture to get Alex released.”
“We are open to this,” he said during a press conference held this Thursday in Caracas.
Fabri explained that Saab is a survivor of stomach cancer and that he has presented severe stomach discomfort in recent days.
In addition, Fabri assured that he sent a letter to the International Red Cross asking them to visit Saab to verify the conditions in which he is being held at the Federal Detention Center in Miami.
Camila Fabri photographed in Caracas on August 18, 202. Credit: YURI CORTEZ/AFP via Getty Images
contacted the US State Department for its reaction to the proposal. He also contacted the detention center to find out more about Saab’s health status. And he contacted the International Red Cross to find out if they received Fabri’s communication and if steps have already been taken to carry out the visit, without having received a response from any of these institutions so far.
Saab Morán is a businessman whom the US Department of Justice points to as a financier of the questioned president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and who was extradited to the US from Cape Verde in 2021. The Maduro government argues that Saab was unjustly detained and remains kidnapped by the United States government.
The US government alleges that Saab Morán was behind a corruption network involving CLAP, a Venezuelan government-subsidized food program that allegedly allowed Maduro and his allies to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from the people of his country. and at the same time using food as a form of social control. According to the version of the Venezuelan government, Saab humanitarian work and defense of human rights, especially in matters of food security and medicines.
In 2021, a Florida judge dismissed seven of eight money laundering charges against Saab Morán, according to court documents.
Saab Morán still faces one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, for which he pleaded not guilty in mid-November 2021.
