LatinNews Daily - 21 October 2024

*Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has appointed the financier Alex Saab as his minister for industry & production. Saab, who was detained for two years in the US on money laundering charges before being released as part of a prisoner swap with Venezuela in December 2023, is believed to have played a key role in circumventing international sanctions on Venezuela and was accused in the US of skimming hundreds of millions of dollars from Venezuelan social programmes. Maduro said that Saab “will drive the development of Venezuela’s entire industrial system as part of a process of building a new economic model”. Saab replaces Colonel Pedro Tellechea who had headed the industry & production ministry since August after previously serving as oil minister and president of the state oil company Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa).