Venezuela Welcomes Release of Diplomat Alex Saab

The Venezuelan government celebrated on Wednesday the release of diplomat Alex Saab from an illegal kidnapping to which he was subjected for more than 3 years in the U.S. in violation of international law.

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The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry welcomed in a statement the release and return to his homeland of the diplomat, who spent more than 1,280 days of unjust confinement in a U.S. detention center after being unjustly detained. 

"The people welcome him with pride after having suffered three and a half years of illegal detention under cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, violating his human rights and the Vienna Convention that grants him diplomatic immunity," the text reads.

“Alex Saab is a victim of retaliation by the United States government for his exceptional international efforts to protect the social rights of all Venezuelans, in the face of the intensification of unilateral coercive measures,” says the statement.

The tweet reads, "Venezuela celebrates with joy the release and return to his homeland of our diplomat Alex Saab, who until today was unjustly kidnapped in a U.S. prison."

Venezuela said that his freedom "is a symbol of victory of the Bolivarian diplomacy of peace and of the thousands of demonstrations of solidarity expressed from all corners of the world by social movements, intellectuals, artists and other fighters for justice."

Likewise, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry recognized "the courage and dignity of his wife, children and family, who accompanied him at all times in his denunciation and in the hope for his release."

It added that "today the link of this injustice is broken, which obliges us to reaffirm once again the unanimous demand of all of Venezuela for a definitive, immediate and unconditional end to the criminal blockade imposed by the Government of the United States against all the Venezuelan people."