Venezuela Backstabs Maduro's Money Man: Reveals He Had 'Fake' National ID

Venezuelan Interior Minister and long-suspected drug lord Diosdado Cabello claimed on Monday that Alex Saab, the man widely considered to be Nicolás Maduro’s top money launderer, does not have Venezuelan citizenship and had been using “fake” Venezuelan identity documents.

Cabello, who leads the Venezuelan socialist regime’s repressive forces and is wanted by U.S. authorities on drug trafficking charges, referred to Saab’s recent deportation to the United States during Monday’s weekly press conference of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). He justified the deportation on the grounds that Saab — a Colombian businessman once hailed as a “hero” by the ruling socialists — does not have Venezuelan nationality and was thus eligible for deportation, as the Venezuelan constitution forbids the extradition of Venezuelan nationals from their country.

The interior minister claimed that Saab had allegedly presented a Venezuelan identity card issued in 2004 as proof of his Venezuelan nationality but that an investigation determined that the document is “fake.” He claimed that no records exist demonstrating Saab’s Venezuelan nationality at SAIME, Venezuela’s migration and identity services agency. Cabello runs SAIME.
“Alex Saab is not Venezuelan, he isn’t.

“He is a citizen of Colombian origin. He presented — and always presented — a Venezuelan ID card that is not valid. There is no record whatsoever with SAIME, which is the agency that issues Venezuelan ID cards,” Cabello claimed. “The document’s issuance date is supposedly 2004, just to make things more or less clear. Do the math on when Alex Saab first arrived here in Venezuela and presented himself with a fraudulent ID card.”

“And with that ID, he gained access to certain things. When we looked into it and conducted a detailed investigation, there is no record in the SAIME certifying that this person is Venezuelan,” he continued, and stressed, “That is why we made the decision to deport him from Venezuela. He is not a Venezuelan citizen; he is a foreign citizen.”

“We did what we were supposed to do. Now I want to make it clear that he is not Venezuelan, he is not Venezuelan,  and there is no document to support the claim that he is Venezuelan,” Cabello reportedly insisted.

Alex Saab is a Colombian businessman widely described as Nicolás Maduro’s “financial brain” and a close member of Maduro’s inner circle. He has been accused of being involved in multiple corruption, money laundering, and bribery schemes, among which notably stands CLAP — the Venezuelan socialist regime’s highly corrupt food program that sold boxes containing low quality, often rotten food to impoverished Venezuelans.

The U.S. Department of Justice originally indicted Saab in 2019 on charges of using the U.S. financial system to launder $350 million from Venezuela’s state coffers. Saab was arrested in Cape Verde in 2020 and extradited to the United States to face trial. Former President Joe Biden released Alex Saab and returned him to Caracas in December 2023, where he was received by Maduro as a “hero.”

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Saab, now in U.S. custody, has been charged with money laundering. An unsealed indictment in the Southern District of Florida states that Saab allegedly conspired with others in a corrupt scheme to secure lucrative contracts to import food for the CLAP program.

“DEA has long investigated the alleged financial crimes and networks tied to Alex Saab and the former Maduro regime,” Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Terrance Cole said. “These charges are a direct result of DEA’s continued commitment to dismantle the corrupt networks operating throughout Venezuela.”

“Acting President” Delcy Rodríguez, speaking to reporters on Monday, said that any decision taken by Venezuelan government will be in the “interest of Venezuela,” referring to the extradition.

“Alex Saab is a citizen of Colombian origin who served in Venezuela, and these are matters between the United States and Alex Saab,” she said.

For years, the Venezuelan socialist regime claimed that Saab was a “Venezuelan diplomat” and accused the U.S. of violating Saab’s alleged diplomatic immunity and “kidnapping” the Colombian businessman in Cape Verde. The Venezuelan regime deployed an extensive multimedia campaign known as “Free Alex Saab” to demand his release. The campaign include the use of bots, influencers, and even saw the participation of the far-left group CODEPINK, who would later celebrate his release and return to Venezuela. CODEPINK members met with Saab in 2024.

Venezuelan journalists pointed out that, despite Cabello’s claims that Saab had a “fake” Venezuelan Identity Card, he held a Venezuelan diplomatic passport, had been appointed by Maduro as industries minister months after Biden sent him back, was registered in the Venezuelan Social Security system, and even voted in Maduro’s sham July 2024 presidential election — all of which require being a Venezuelan citizen to be able to do.

The non-government organization Transparencia Venezuela noted that the Venezuelan regime had claimed that Saab had diplomatic immunity at the time of his 2020 arrest. Venezuela’s regime-controlled courts reportedly affirmed that Maduro had appointed Saab as “special envoy” with “the specific responsibility” of managing trade relations between Venezuela and Iran.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.