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Cape Verde economy sag; Prime Minister busy playing politics with Saab’s release

 

Venezuelan Diplomat Alex Saab

In the absence of economic leadership and with a Prime Minister intent on focussing on doing the bidding of the United States, it is no surprise that Cape Verde’s economy contracted by 14.8 percent in 2020.

Since independence, the country has never been faced with an economic, social, financial, and budgetary situation of the magnitude we are facing today, Dr. Olavo Correia, Deputy Prime Minister confirmed.

The finance minister attributed the financial crisis to the COVD-19 pandemic, opposition figures insist the economic downturn has been made worse, as the Prime Minister has been busy playing geopolitics to focus on domestic matters.

Prime Minister Ulisses Correia continues to look unconcerned and focus more on ensuring Venezuelan Diplomat Alex Saab, who faces extradition to the United States, remains in illegal detention in Cape Verde.

The past few months have seen the actions of Ulisses Correia and his Interior Minister resulting in Cape Verde defying three binding decisions of the ECOWAS Court and earn heavy criticism from leaders of the other 14 Members States at last month’s ECOWAS summit held in Ghana.  More recently, Cape Verde has been ordered to halt Saab’s extradition by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, Geneva, while it investigates allegations of torture and denial to specialist health care which Saab, as a cancer patient, has been refused for over a year.

Cape Verde arrested Saab who is also Venezuela’s Deputy Ambassador to the African Union on 12 June 2020 based on a request from the United States. On 15 March 2021, the ECOWAS Court of Justice, in a unanimous decision delivered by Judge Rapporteur Justice Januaria Costa (a senior Cape Verde jurist and the country’s former Minister of Justice) ruled that  Saab’s arrest and detention were illegal due to numerous violations of Cape Verde Law, that he should be freed immediately and the extradition process is terminated.

There are suggestions that in pandering to the politically motivated United States pursuit of Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab, The Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior, have systematically destroyed the good name of Cape Verde.

Source: Ell Samuels|Tamale|Ghana|odinews85.blogspot.com

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