Cape Verde’s Govt Move To Allow Companies Lay Off Staff Indicate US Investment Dimension’s Efforts To Influence Court Against Alex Saab

A new move to allow companies undergoing a serious financial crisis lay off staff by the Cape Verde government has indicated that the dimension of the new investment effort of the United States in the country is questionable.

This move according to the findings is a direct effort to influence the decision of the country’s court in the ongoing effort to extradite embattled Venezuelan diplomat, Alex Saab.

The United States government had announced the expansion of its embassy in Cape Verde with about $400 million.

During the laying of the foundation stone for the construction of the new US diplomatic complex, US ambassador to Cape Verde, Jeff Daigle, said it would result in a direct injection of about $100 million into the Cape Verde economy.

However, the timing of the project’s takeoff had raised suspicion in the global community as it was made just a few days before the Cape Verde Constitutional Court is expected to decide on Saab’s appeal against his extradition to the United States.

This suspicion was further confirmed on Thursday when the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Olivia Coreira, has announced that companies worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic can lay-off staff till September with the government authorization.

He made the announcement while presenting the proposal with the fourth amendment to the law that instituted the simplified regime of suspension of the labour contract in Cabo Verde, launched in April 2020 to mitigate the consequences of the economic crisis, providing for the payment of 70 percent of wages to workers, to the country’s parliament.

“Public companies can already currently resort to ‘lay-offs’ under the law. We are the ones preventing public companies from doing that,” he said.

The minister explained that in the new amendment presented today, which should be voted on in this parliamentary session that ends on Friday, a “clarification” is made, allowing public companies that show losses of more than 70%, compared to 2019, to access the ‘lay-off’, but only when duly authorised by the supervisor.

“There is no point in creating panic on top of the crisis we are already experiencing,” said
Olavo Correia, after being questioned by opposition MPs about the possible extension of ‘layoff’ to civil servants – which the ruler denied -, guaranteeing that what is being done is “a clarification in the law”.

“The country is experiencing today simply its biggest economic, financial and budgetary crisis in its history. Since Cape Verde’s independence, the country has never been faced with an economic, social, financial and budgetary situation of the magnitude we are facing today,” said Correia, who is also Finance Minister.

This move confirmed the immediate suspicion that the country is undergoing an economic crisis and with a GDP of less than US$2 billion, a $400 million project, representing 20% of the GDP, for the construction of an embassy is not realistic.

Some argued that rather than allowing the construction of a defecto spy station, Cape Verde should ask for a $100 million grant for vocational education training and building of and funding of a technical university.

Saab was arrested and detained in Cape Verde based on the request of the Donald Trump led United States government during a stop over on his way to Iran over allegations of money laundering, a move the Venezuelan government faulted with claims that the businessman is its special envoy on a humanitarian mission.

The Venezuelan government claimed that before his arrest, Saab had been on a mission to get food and medical supplies in Iran, stopping over in Cape Verde where he was arrested by security operatives.

The failure of Cape Verdean authorities to obey the ruling of the ECOWAS court by extraditing Saab to the US is not the first contempt for court order by the authorities since his detention last year.

Saab was denied access to any member of his defense team despite three court rulings granting him the right to do so.