Venezuelan coalition allies press Rodríguez to resist US pursuit of insiders

Pulido was detained in Venezuela in 2023 in PDVSA corruption crackdown

Venezuelan authorities have remained silent about Pulido’s arrest, a silence that reflects the challenge Venezuela’s acting president Delcy Rodríguez faces in appeasing elements of the ruling coalition that want her to resist attempts by the Trump administration to round up scores of Venezuelan insiders wanted by the US, sometimes for years, for serious crimes ranging from corruption to drug trafficking.

Alvaro Pulido, a 62-year-old Colombian-born businessman wanted for years in the United States on charges that he paid bribes to top Venezuelan officials in exchange for lucrative state contracts, was taken into US custody on Sunday, American officials said. He was scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Tuesday in Miami.

Pulido was taken into US custody after an investigation led by the DEA, FBI, and Homeland Security Investigations, American officials said on Sunday. It was unclear how he ended up in US custody. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and the State Department had been offering a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to his arrest.

US Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote in a social media post Sunday that Pulido’s “alleged actions show a blatant disregard to the Venezuelan people by corrupting government programs intended to provide critical food, medicine, and housing for personal enrichment and exploiting the American financial system to do it.” Blanche added that “no amount of time or distance will stop” the Justice Department “from working with our federal law enforcement and international partners to pursue these criminals and bring them to justice in an American courtroom.”

Pulido was indicted in Miami federal court in 2019 and again in 2021 as part of an investigation into Alex Saab, a one-time ally of ousted Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro. Prosecutors allege that Pulido, together with Saab, created a network of offshore shell companies to funnel bribes to top Maduro allies in exchange for more than $2 billion in contracts to import food, medicine, and low-cost housing at a time of widespread hardship in Venezuela.

Prior to the alleged offenses, Pulido had a history of drug trafficking that included a 1997 conviction in Italy under the alias German Enrique Rubio, the US attorney’s office for the southern district of Florida said in a statement.

The Colombian-born Pulido was arrested in Venezuela in 2023 as part of a sprawling crackdown on corruption inside state-run oil company PDVSA, an operation that was led by Rodríguez while she was serving as Maduro’s vice president. She took over as Venezuela’s acting president following the US military’s ouster of Maduro in January.

Saab, who also hails from Colombia, was deported to the United States by Rodríguez in May. In September, he pleaded guilty in a related bribery case, agreeing to cooperate against Maduro and other individuals and forfeit $195 million in criminal proceeds from the corruption scheme.