The case of Alex Saab's arrest in Cape Verde could easily be put in the box of U.S. Government's blunders. Department of Justice's Attorneys and Drug Enforcement Administration's agents have been looking into Saab's activities for a very long time, in our view more than enough to build a water-tight case to put away this Colombian thug, his narco partner German Rubio, and his closest relatives / associates. But DoJ and DEA haven't. One of Saab's sons lived in America (on who's dime?) for years.

The world's foremost anti corruption campaigner, Alex Navalny, wrote an article from prison recently that was published by The Guardian. In it, Navalny calls for a number of measures to be implemented, in the western world, so that  thugs like the ones ruling his country and mine can be stopped. I have news for Navalny: that call is as likely to happen as Putin or Maduro relinquishing power because their opposition is asking.

This site has been critical of U.S. Treasury sanctions towards PDVSA / Venezuela. We have argued that, as implemented, sanctions were akin to a haphazard siege: cut access to main / back entrances, leave all other entry points open. We have reported how, despite sanctions, PDVSA hasn’t stopped trading its crude, assisted by a never ending queue of operators who are not American, i.e. do not have to observe / comply with Treasury sanctions. A lot of money has been made on the back of sanctions.

[See added note below] - From GOV.UK: "Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has announced further sanctions on individuals under the UK’s Global Anti-Corruption sanctions regime." Further on the press release: "Alex Nain Saab Morán and Alvaro Enrique Pulido Vargas for exploiting two of Venezuela’s public programmes