[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 185 (Thursday, October 21, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H5732]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        EXTRADITION OF ALEX SAAB

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Salazar) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. SALAZAR. Madam Speaker, for those who enable murderous dictators, 
the United States system will find you in this life or the next, and 
this is the perfect example.
  For Alex Saab, the plunderer of Venezuela, justice for his crimes 
against humanity will be swift and without mercy.
  Why? Because over the weekend we learned that Saab will finally be 
extradited to the United States.
  He tried to claim diplomatic immunity, but he is not a diplomat. He 
is not a politician. He is just another thug for the Venezuelan regime.
  Saab was Maduro's leading front man and his number one money 
launderer. He is a drug trafficker who is responsible for flooding 
American streets with cocaine. He helped finance the worst crimes and 
the most appalling human rights abuses committed by the Maduro regime 
in Venezuela in the last 15 years.
  So it is no surprise that Maduro, the dictator, has pulled out all 
the stops to try to prevent his extradition to the United States, but 
he could not.
  In the meantime, earlier this week, six American executives, American 
executives in Venezuela, known as the Citgo 6, were sent back to a 
cruel political prison for no reason.
  The regime arrested these men on bogus charges in 2020 with no 
justification. Now, with no explanation, Maduro has condemned these 
innocent American executives to rot in a Venezuelan prison.
  Why? Just one reason: retaliation because Maduro doesn't like this 
picture.
  This is a classic tactic of tyrants. If Maduro thinks that he can 
make a prisoner exchange, he needs to wake up and realize that the 
United States does not deal with dictators. So the Citgo 6, six 
American executives, need to be released now, unconditionally.
  Unfortunately, Maduro right now is panicking because his top 
confidant will soon be facing trial in an American court of law, and he 
will say many things that Maduro doesn't want us to hear.
  Today, the victims of the Maduro regime in Venezuela will finally 
have some justice, but we, as a Nation, cannot stop until Venezuela is 
free of this satanic nightmare called the Maduro regime.

                          ____________________