CAPE VERDE: A Colombian businessman detained in Cape Verde in June was on a mission to Iran as a special envoy of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to negotiate fuel and humanitarian supplies at the time of his arrest, his lawyers told Reuters.
Authorities in Cape Verde detained Alex Saab when his private jet stopped to refuel just after 8 p.m. on June 12, acting on an international arrest warrant for money laundering charges filed last year in the United States.
US prosecutors accuse Saab of bribing Venezuelan officials to take advantage of the state-controlled exchange rate and transferring $350 million in illegally obtained funds to overseas accounts.
Saab, who remains in a Cape Verde jail as he fights extradition to the United States, has denied the charges. His lawyers have called the US charges “politically motivated.”
The Madrid-based law firm representing Saab in Cape Verde exclusively provided Reuters with details of his Iran visits and relationship with the Maduro government, along with an account of his arrest.
“Special Envoy Saab is the key figure for the US in their plan to overthrow Nicolas Maduro and keep suffocating the Venezuelan people,” said a statement from Saab’s defense team, led by former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon.
Saab’s lawyers said he made an earlier visit to Iran in April, when he persuaded Iranian officials to send oil tankers loaded with gasoline along with planes carrying refinery materials, to Venezuela to ease a fuel shortage crisis.
He also secured medical supplies and food to help Venezuela prepare for the coronavirus pandemic, which threatened to overrun the country’s decrepit health system, the lawyers said.
Asked about US officials’ comments that Caracas paid Tehran in gold for the shipments, Saab’s lawyers said the items were “paid for along standard international terms of trade using Venezuela’s own resources.”
Washington has imposed tough sanctions on trade in Venezuelan oil and gold in recent years in an effort to remove Maduro, whose 2018 reelection was widely considered a sham. The United States has also put sanctions on Iran.
Venezuela’s government, which said after Saab’s arrest that he was acting as its “agent” to secure humanitarian supplies for the coronavirus pandemic, did not respond to requests for comment.
Saab’s legal team is appealing a decision by a Cape Verde court to extradite him, arguing that he has diplomatic immunity and would not face a fair trial in the United States due to “illegal evidence.”
In a letter Saab wrote to Cape Verde’s prime minister earlier in August, he said Venezuela would offer his government “more opportunities” if authorities there released him. “I can help Cape Verde more than the United States will do in 100 years,” Saab wrote in the letter, seen by Reuters.
Saab’s arrest was a dramatic turn for the man who had risen from a textile company owner in Colombia to become a powerful intermediary for the Venezuelan government, considered a dictatorship by most Western nations.
As the Trump administration tightened sanctions, Saab has leveraged his international contacts to help Maduro barter his remaining resources to obtain aid from allies like Iran.
Saab’s relationship with the Venezuelan government began in 2011, when he secured a contract to build public housing, his lawyers said. The US indictment against Saab alleges he made “corrupt payments” in connection with this deal.
In 2018, Maduro named Saab a special envoy to “collaborate” with foreign governments “to find solutions to Venezuela’s complex situation,” his lawyers said.
When the coronavirus pandemic began spreading through Latin America early this year, the lawyers said Venezuela’s foreign ministry entrusted Saab with “the responsibility of acquiring greatly needed humanitarian resources.”
During his April visit to Iran, Saab told Iranian officials that Venezuela needed shipments of gasoline, as US sanctions had restricted the Maduro government’s ability to import material needed to produce it.
The Iranians agreed to send eight oil tankers, along with 16 flights coordinated by Iran’s Mahan Air, his lawyers said.
Iran’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Flight tracking services showed 16 Mahan Air flights arriving in Venezuela in late April and May. At the time, a senior PDVSA official said the flights were bringing chemicals needed in the refining process to make gasoline.
Iran also sent five tankers carrying gasoline to Venezuela starting in May, which helped to ease temporarily the scarcity of gasoline. However, the United States this month seized four cargoes of Iranian fuel bound for Venezuela, where fuel shortages are once again worsening.
A top Iranian official involved in the talks for these shipments told Reuters the Mahan Air planes returned to Iran with gold bars worth $200 million as part of the “trade.”
In April, some 7 tons of gold was withdrawn from Venezuela’s central bank, people familiar with the operations said, though they did not know its destination. The Maduro government has repeatedly sold off its gold reserves in recent years to obtain valuable foreign currency.
Detained Colombia businessman was negotiating with Iran for Venezuela, lawyers say
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Detained Colombia businessman was negotiating with Iran for Venezuela, lawyers say
- Authorities in Cape Verde detained Alex Saab when his private jet stopped to refuel just after 8 p.m. on June 12, acting on an international arrest warrant for money laundering charges
- Saab’s lawyers said he made an earlier visit to Iran in April, when he persuaded Iranian officials to send oil tankers loaded with gasoline along with planes carrying refinery materials, to Venezuela
UN report says Ugandan troops helped South Sudan with deadly airstrikes
- Ugandan troops are deployed in South Sudan to help the government of President Salva Kiir against forces loyal to opposition figure Riek Machar
- The attacks cited in the UN report involved widespread use of “improvised incendiary devices,” it said
NAIROBI: Uganda helped South Sudan carry out airstrikes that killed and badly burned civilians a year ago, according to a UN inquiry.
Joint aerial bombardments by South Sudan and Uganda “targeted civilian-populated areas predominantly affecting Nuer communities in opposition-affiliated areas,” said the report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan, referring to South Sudan’s second-largest ethnic group.
Ugandan troops are deployed in South Sudan to help the government of President Salva Kiir against forces loyal to opposition figure Riek Machar, who was suspended as vice president in September after he faced criminal charges. Ugandan military authorities say troops are in South Sudan at the invitation of the South Sudan government and in accordance with a bilateral security agreement.
While Machar is currently on trial for offenses including treason, fighting has intensified in areas seen as his strongholds, where government troops are trying to disperse the rebels.
The attacks cited in the UN report involved widespread use of “improvised incendiary devices,” it said.
Ugandan forces entered South Sudan in March 2025 with military hardware, including tanks and armored vehicles. That happened shortly after a militia overran a military garrison near the Ethiopian border.
Weeks later, Machar was placed under house arrest for his alleged role in orchestrating the attack, charges that he denies. The government has since relied on aerial attacks to gain the upper hand in a widening conflict with Machar’s forces and other armed groups.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni sent his army to intervene in South Sudan’s 2013-2018 civil war on multiple occasions on behalf of Kiir’s forces, helping to turn the tide in his favor. Ongoing fighting threatens a 2018 peace deal.
During one attack in March 2025 in Wunaliet, 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the capital of Juba, homes were engulfed after planes dropped “barrels of liquid that ignited,” witnesses told the UN commission. Survivors said they saw “civilians set alight, including a boy burnt beyond recognition.” A barracks, housing opposition soldiers, was also struck.
A day after the attack, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son who also serves as the top military commander, posted on X that Uganda had bombed opposition forces.
“Our air offensive will not stop until Riek Machar makes peace with my uncle Afande Salva,” he wrote. While Kiir is not actually Kainerugaba’s uncle, the term shows the closeness of the two governments.
The post, which was later deleted, accompanied a video appearing to show fiery explosions captured from an in-flight aircraft.
Flight tracking data shows that a turboprop plane that circled the area during the bombing had arrived earlier that day from Uganda and was operated by the Ugandan army, the UN report said.
The report does not state conclusively how many operations Uganda was involved in or the exact nature of their involvement, only that there appeared to be “high degrees of planning, operational integration and command-level authorization.”
In November, Uganda denied participating in any combat operations in South Sudan. It has also denied using “chemical weapons and barrel bombs” and said it does not attack civilians.
Last year, Amnesty International said that Uganda had violated a 2018 UN arms embargo that prohibits member states from providing most forms of military assistance to South Sudan, including weapons and personnel. An UN panel of experts echoed that assessment in November.
