FRONTLINE and the Venezuelan news outlet Armando.info investigate Alex Saab, a shadowy figure at the heart of a corruption scandal spanning from Venezuela to the U.S., and explore what has happened to the journalists who helped uncover the scandal.
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In 2016, as Venezuela was in economic freefall, President Nicolás Maduro’s government responded with the CLAP program: a domestic aid initiative that was billed as providing high-quality, essential food items to Venezuelans impacted by the economic crisis. But as the FRONTLINE and Armando.info documentary shows, complaints about powdered milk in the CLAP boxes soon caught the attention of a team of journalists. Armando.info requested a chemical analysis of a few of the milk products, and a researcher they consulted noted some were so deficient in calcium and high in sodium they couldn’t be classified as milk at all.
Armando.info’s investigative journalist Roberto Deniz and his colleagues also uncovered that the CLAP initiative itself was enriching Saab, the biggest contractor for the food program and a close associate of Maduro’s. The Armando.info journalists’ reporting helped expose a vast corruption scandal, which ultimately made them targets of the Maduro government. Facing threats, harassment and possible jail time, Deniz made the difficult decision to flee Venezuela, and continued to follow the story from exile in Colombia.
As governments across the globe crack down on a free press and journalists face increased intimidation, “A Dangerous Assignment” is a stunning look at the price of journalism in Venezuela.
“A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela” is an Assignment Film production for GBH/FRONTLINE in association with Armando.info. The director is Juan Ravell. The producer is Jeff Arak. The reporter is Roberto Deniz. The executive producer for Armando.info is Ewald Scharfenberg. The editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE is Raney Aronson-Rath.
Explore additional reporting connected to “A Dangerous Assignment” on our website:
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FRONTLINE is produced at GBH in Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Additional support for FRONTLINE is provided by the Abrams Foundation, Park Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler through the Jon L. Hagler Foundation and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen, and Corey David Sauer. Additional support for this program from Free Press Unlimited.
CHAPTERS:
0:00:00 – Prologue
0:04:10 – Journalists Investigate Complaints About Powdered Milk in Venezuela’s CLAP Food Program
0:12:50 – Who is Alex Saab?
0:32:01 – ‘Operación Alacrán’ / ‘Operation Scorpion’ and Its Impact on Venezuela’s Political Opposition
0:38:15 – How the U.S. Government Tracked Down Alex Saab
0:46:30 – A Campaign to Free Alex Saab Takes Hold in Venezuela and Other Countries
0:55:05 – Alex Saab Extradited to the U.S.
0:59:18 – Alex Saab’s Pre-Trial Hearing in Miami
1:02:30 – Court Documents Reveal Alex Saab’s Cooperation With the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
1:11:20 – Alex Saab is Freed as Part of a Prisoner Swap Deal Between the U.S. and Venezuela
1:21:58 – Credits
