Venezuela said to detain Maduro allies targeted by the US

By ANATOLY KURMANAEV and ANNIE CORREAL

Venezuelan security agents have questioned two prominent businessmen who have faced money laundering charges in the United States, according to five Venezuelans and a U.S. official.

The move against the men, with ties to the deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, signaled a deepening cooperation between the two countries.

The politically connected businessmen, Raúl Gorrín and Alex Saab, were detained in the capital, Caracas, overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday, two of the people said. U.S. law enforcement agencies had knowledge of the detention, said one of the Venezuelans and the American official. All of the people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The current status of the two men is unclear. A representative for Gorrín said he was free as of Wednesday evening. A lawyer for Saab, Luigi Giuliano, denied his client was detained.

The detentions come just a month after U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and captured its leader, Maduro.

Since the attack, the Trump administration has been closely working with Maduro’s former vice president and successor, Delcy Rodríguez. In a matter of weeks, Rodríguez has reoriented the country’s crude oil exports to the United States and rewritten the country’s oil law to bring in American investment.

The two businessmen are the first prominent allies of Maduro’s government to come into the legal crosshairs of Rodríguez’s caretaker administration.

The detentions add to the growing atmosphere of fear and suspicion among Maduro’s loyalists, many of whom have been taken aback by the speed and depth of Rodríguez’s campaign to redistribute wealth and power following the president’s downfall. Since taking power, Rodríguez has fired several officials seen as loyal to Maduro and has reduced his family’s access to power and government contracts.

A major focus has been Saab, a Colombian businessman close to Maduro who made a fortune selling Venezuelan oil and importing food for the country’s rationing program. After coming to power, Rodríguez fired him from his post as the country’s ministry of industry and sidelined his allies.

The Colombian news outlet, Caracol, previously reported the detentions.

Gorrín owns a range of businesses in Venezuela, including an insurance company and a television station.

He is not known to face any charges in Venezuela. He has been under indictment in the United States since 2017 on accusations of laundering money. He has repeatedly denied those accusations.

Saab has been charged with laundering money for Maduro and spent about two years in a U.S. prison, until he was returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap in 2023.

The State Department, the Department of Justice and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.