Alvaro Pulido, a Venezuelan businessman wanted for years on U.S. bribery charges, is now in American custody and set to appear in a Miami federal court this week.
Pulido was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of an investigation into his longtime business partner, Alex Saab, a onetime ally of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and State Department had offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.
Nicole Navas Oxman, a Homeland Security Task Force spokesperson, said Sunday that Pulido was taken into U.S. custody following an investigation led by the DEA, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations. Oxman did not say how Pulido ended up in American hands, only that he is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday in Miami.
Saab and Pulido are accused of building and running a network of shell companies used to funnel bribe payments to Maduro and top allies in exchange for lucrative Venezuelan state contracts to import goods such as food and medicine. Saab was deported to the United States in May by Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, and has since pleaded guilty in a related case.
Venezuelan authorities have so far said nothing publicly about Pulido’s arrest. That silence underscores the political bind facing Rodríguez, who is navigating pressure from factions within the ruling coalition that want her government to resist U.S. efforts to extradite or otherwise capture Venezuelan insiders wanted on corruption and drug-trafficking charges, in some cases for years.
Rodríguez, who served as Maduro’s vice president, is holding the office as a caretaker until Venezuela’s next elections in 2027. Her political future, and that of the remaining Maduro-aligned establishment, remains uncertain as Washington continues to press for the capture of figures tied to the former regime’s corruption apparatus.
Add comment