The White House says it does not plan to “exchange” Alex Saab

The White House denied this Friday that it is evaluating the possibility of using Alex Saab as a “trade token” with the government of Nicolás Maduro, as had been rumored in recent hours.

A Biden Administration official told the voice of america that the “rumors” that have been disclosed “are false”, without going into details.

The official was referring to information published through a Tweet by a former US Treasury official, Marshall Billingslea, who claimed that “credible rumors are circulating that the White House wants to exchange Alex Saab with Venezuela.”

In his message, Billingslea, who was undersecretary for counter-terrorism financing at the Treasury Department during the administration of former President Donald Trump, also considered that acknowledging the “false claim” that Saab is a diplomat of the socialist government “would sabotage the court case against him”.

The court case has further strained relations between the United States and the South American nation and has been an obstacle in the negotiations held by the socialist government of Maduro with the so-called Unitary Platform of the opposition.

Saab’s defense and the Maduro government have argued that the Colombian businessman is a government “diplomat” from Venezuela.

From Caracas have publicly advocated for his release and have conditioned the talks in Mexico City to the fulfillment of this demand.

The Biden government supports the negotiations and has been in favor of easing the sanctions imposed since 2015, if the Maduro government takes “concrete steps.”

In May, following the trip of a US delegation to Caracas, the White House announced the partial lifting of some sanctions, in exchange for the release of two Americans detained in that country. In June, the Treasury Department removed from its sanctioned list to the nephew of Cilia Flores, wife of President Nicolás Maduro.

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