The Ultimate Betrayal of Alex Saab and the Fate of Nicolás Maduro and the Venezuelan People

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist

16 Sep 2026

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Nicolas Maduro and Alex Saab in Caracas, Venezuela on January 23, 2024 (AP photo: Jesus Vargas, File)

The United States got its hands on Alex Saab a second time in order to use him in its case against Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. succeeded in getting a guilty plea from Saab, but the current Venezuelan state is ultimately guilty for choosing to turn him over.

“On May 16, 2026, Alex Saab, once a diplomat serving Venezuela who had already suffered imprisonment at the hands of the United States, was turned over to the United States once again. Interim president Delcy Rodriguez's action against Saab was one of treachery and should be referred to as such.”

Those words began this columnist’s analysis of the Venezuelan state in the wake of the United States' kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro. “Betrayal in Venezuela” was published four months ago, and since that time the trajectory of U.S. control over Venezuela has only worsened, with an agreement that deposits its oil revenues into a U.S. Treasury account and doles out small amounts while keeping the lion’s share. Members of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) were allowed to provide “assistance” after an earthquake and to even meet with the interim president. The U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) has free reign over Venezuela, and the ubiquitous murals portraying Maduro and Hugo Chavez are being removed from public view. The worst news of late is that Alex Saab has changed his plea from innocent to guilty in the U.S. charges of money laundering lodged against him in a federal court.

The obvious question is: Why wouldSaab plead guilty? An obvious answer is that he was promised some sort of leniency, perhaps even his freedom, if he agreed to a guilty plea. According to corporate media sources, “The money laundering offense carries a maximum 20-year penalty but prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence at the low end of the recommended range and seek additional reductions should his cooperation, including against four unnamed co-defendants, prove valuable.” It is safe to assume that Nicolás Maduro is one of those who are unnamed and that Saab will testify and help prosecutors win in court with what is actually a very weak case.

The charge of money laundering is itself quite dubious, meaning only that Saab sought to circumvent U.S. coercive measures that were literally starving the Venezuelan people. Saab’s case became an international cause after he was kidnapped by the first Donald Trump administration in 2019. Ultimately, a prisoner swap during the Joe Biden administration gave him his freedom, but his liberty was short-lived. The Delcy Rodriguez administration put him in custody in February, lied for several months about having done so, and finally turned him over to the U.S. while publicly smearing him, and even deported his wife back to her native Italy. The U.S. cannot make a good case against Maduro unless Saab testifies against him, and Saab would not do that unless prosecutors offered him a good deal that might include his freedom.

The denialists who refuse to state what is obvious, that the Venezuelan state acts under U.S. orders and is betraying its people cannot be casually defended as being mistaken politically. They are in effect defending imperialism, whether they realize that or not. Their stance is not a mere disagreement.

The United States is said to be “in decline” when it is in a state of crisis in exercising control. That crisis is not the same as decline, which implies a loss of power. Despite setbacks as in Iran, the U.S. still has the world’s largest military footprint and the world’s reserve currency. It has the power of narrative over the world's information spaces with its corporate media, which, as directed by the Trump administration using selective leaks, reported Saab’s change in plea the day before it was made. Venezuela shows us that the idea of a declining U.S. is mistaken, as it openly brags about stealing oil and the revenue that comes with it.

This columnist has chosen not to claim knowledge of how the U.S. extracted Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, with relative ease on the night of January 3, 2026, or whether any Venezuelan gave assistance. The points made in Black Agenda Report are frankly larger and more important. While leftists were standing in solidarity with Saab and with the Venezuelan people, the Chavismo project had fallen prey to a determined U.S. that remains committed to full-spectrum dominance and that sees its Venezuelan success as a blueprint for the future. Why should it feel otherwise when international law has been rendered useless and when leftists will not even speak what is obvious, that Venezuela is a full-fledged client state of the United States.

The very least we can do is speak the truth. Delcy Rodriguez was the subject of an indictment herself, but saying so does not mean that the “gun to her head” explanation should be accepted without question or critique. While Venezuela capitulates, the Cuban people are living without reliable electricity as the U.S. deprives that nation of fuel and food and also threatens its leadership with indictments.

Venezuela’s fall into U.S. clutches endangers the entire region and emboldens the Trump administration, as it did in its mistaken belief that Iran would easily fall into their hands in a regime change operation. Iran provides an important lesson. The U.S. has been stymied in its military attack, and its allies in the region have been weakened by Iran’s counterattacks. But the U.S. has upped the ante by using its influence with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to again falsely accuse Iran of “non compliance” with the Non Proliferation Treaty. But every accusation is a confession. The U.S. and Israel are nuclear powers and may be planning to strike Iran using noncompliance as a pretext while the rest of the world is unwilling or unable to stand in their way.

Venezuela provides a cautionary tale for the world, but especially for the left, which is mired in wishful thinking and refusals to understand U.S. power politics or to admit that the cherished vision of a sovereign Venezuela is dead for now. As this columnist wrote, “Anti-imperialists may feel a sense of loss as they watch the state they once defended now take part in deception against its own people. The only thing worse than that is self-deception, which too many leftists have engaged in ever since January 3rd.”

Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. You can support her work on Patreon and find it on Twitter, Bluesky, and Telegram. She can be reached via email at margaret.kimberley@blackagendareport.com.