Growing up in Venezuela, I saw how the country's socialist economic policies made it a struggle to survive. Every day, I would look out my dad's car window and see people rummaging in the trash for food—a reminder that it could be much worse.
In 2016, while some Venezuelans were literally starving to death, President Nicolás Maduro announced that he was launching a new program called CLAP. Maduro claimed that this would be the "beginning of a new economic revolution in the Venezuelan food economy."
Through this program, every Venezuelan family was supposed to receive a box of essential food items on a regular basis, but they rarely arrived. When they did arrive, the food inside was often inedible—especially the powdered milk.
Juan Andrés Ravell uncovered this massive corruption scandal for PBS's Frontline in a recent documentary titled "A Dangerous Assignment." The film is told through the eyes of the investigative reporter Roberto Deniz as he follows where the money allocated for the CLAP program really went. Deniz's investigation led him to Alex Saab, a close associate of Nicólas Maduro, who received the contracts to import food for the CLAP program. Saab became a multimillionaire practically overnight. He built a sprawling mansion in Colombia, married a former Italian supermodel, and bought a lavish property in one of Rome's wealthiest neighborhoods. Ravell told Reason that, "From 2013 on, Alex Saab was Maduro's favorite contractor, but he never talked about him. He was operating in the shadows."
Deniz reported that Saab, as a contractor, was responsible for the inedible food Venezuelan families received through the CLAP program. And that he was paying kickbacks to Maduro. So Saab sued for defamation and libel. For his safety, Deniz fled the country and continued his investigation.
In 2019, Saab was indicted on money-laundering charges and sanctioned by the Treasury Department. The following year, he was en route to Iran when his plane stopped in Cape Verde to refuel and he was captured by the U.S. Then the Venezuelan regime launched a campaign to rehabilitate his image. They were helped by leftist activists, who echoed Maduro's claim that Saab was a hero of the poor, bravely standing up to the imperialist U.S. government.
Saab was extradited to a Miami jail and charged with stealing $350 million and falsifying documents. Then, a twist in the story surprised even Roberto Deniz: During Court proceedings, it was revealed that Saab had been working as a double agent, providing U.S. law enforcement agencies with information on corruption within the Maduro regime. "We still don't know why Maduro would defend Alex Saab, still after knowing that he was an informant for the DEA. Alex Saab's lawyer said that Maduro was aware of everything that Saab had done. So it's hard to tell, it's really hard to tell," Ravell told Reason.
Today, Alex Saab is a free man. Two years after he was extradited to Miami, the Biden administration worked out an exchange for 10 American prisoners. When Saab arrived in Venezuela, he received a hero's welcome from Maduro.
Did Maduro know all along that Saab was working as a U.S. informant? Why was he so adamant about bringing him back from the U.S.? By the end of the film, those remain unsolved mysteries, but overall, the documentary unfolds like a crime thriller. Ravell told Reason that Venezuela maintains a "mafia mentality" and he continues, "Venezuela is what political scientists define as a kleptocratic state—run by people who want to enrich themselves to keep power."
The Venezuelan regime attempted to block Venezuelans from accessing "A Dangerous Assignment" after it was released, but that proved impossible. Maduro is staying in power despite losing the recent election, which means that Deniz's investigation won't bring him or Saab to justice anytime soon. However, as depicted in the film, his reporting has helped shift the public conversation. There's now a broad consensus both within Venezuela and internationally that the country is governed not only by a brutal dictatorship, but by a band of depraved criminals who have enriched themselves in part by stealing money intended to buy food for hungry children.
Photo Credits: Alejandro Rojas Dagg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Miguel Gutiérrez/EFE/Newscom; El Informador Diario Online Venezolano, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Abraham Salazar—Efecto Cocuyo, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Humberto Matheus/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Humberto Matheus/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Humberto Matheus/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Ramses Mattey/ZUMA Press/Newscom; NoonIcarus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Wilfredor, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; ZiaLater, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Eneas De Troya from Mexico City, México, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EFE/Newscom; Jesus Vargas/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Gil-Gonzalez Alain/ABACA/Newscom; Jesus Vargas/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Jimmy Villalta / VWPics/Newscom; Javier Campos/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; myself (User:Piotrus), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; VENEZUELA'S PRESIDENCY / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom; Jeampier Arguinzones/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Jimmy Villalta / VWPics/Newscom; Vuk Valcic/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Jeampier Arguinzones/dpa/picture-alliance/Newscom; Jeff Malet Photography/Newscom; Eva Plevier/ANP/Newscom; MIGUEL GUTIERREZ/EFE/Newscom; VENEZUELA'S PRESIDENCY / Xinhua News Agency/Newscom
- Video Editor: Regan Taylor
- Video Editor: César Báez
- Audio Production: Ian Keyser
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