Venezuela‘s
government has paused negotiation with the country’s US-backed opposition. The
Nicolas Maduro government’s action comes after the extradition of Alex Saab, a
close ally of the President wanted on money laundering charges in the US.

Head of the
government’s delegation Jorge Rodríguez said his team will not take part in the
next scheduled round of talks in Mexico City, although he stopped short of saying
the government was abandoning the talks altogether. The talks have been going on since August.

Rodriguez
called his arrest an illegal “aggression” by the US, which has been
pushing for years for Maduro’s removal.

The
announcement came hours after the businessman was put on a US-bound plane in
Cape Verde after failing in a 16-month fight to prevent his extradition to face
money laundering charges in Miami. Saab was arrested in the African archipelago
while making a stop on the way to Iran. The Maduro government has maintained
that he was on a diplomatic humanitarian mission.

American
authorities have been targeting Saab for years, believing he holds numerous
secrets about how Maduro, the president’s family, and his top aides siphoned off
millions of dollars in government contracts for food and housing amid
widespread hunger in oil-rich Venezuela.

Venezuelan
security forces on Saturday picked up six American oil executives who have been
under home arrest in another politically charged case.

It’s
unclear if the men — all of whom were convicted and sentenced last year to
lengthy prison terms in a corruption case that the US says was marred by
irregularities — were being returned to jail. A lawyer for the men said he
doesn’t know where they were being taken.

The
so-called Citgo 6, for the Houston subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil
company, were lured to Caracas in 2017 for a meeting when masked police busted
into a conference room and took them into custody on embezzlement charges tied
to a never-executed deal to refinance billions in Citgo bonds.  

(With AP inputs)