The condemnation to a colossal compensation of 13 million dollars of the Venezuelan newspaper
El Nacional
, critic of the government, is a
"disguised expropriation"
, rebelled Monday its president and director Miguel Henrique Otero.
Read also: Venezuela: arrest of illegal vaccine sellers
Venezuelan justice on Friday recognized the daily guilty of causing
"serious moral damage"
to Diosdado Cabello, one of the main figures of Chavist power, deputy and number two of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) in power
"It is a disguised expropriation which is causing worldwide noise. With this conviction, they will demand the $ 13 million. We are going to tell them that we cannot pay, so they will seize the building, the machines, everything ... and they will give it in compensation to Diosdado Cabello, ”
said Miguel Henrique Otero. Speaking by videoconference from Madrid to journalists, Miguel Henrique Otero believes that all of the newspaper's assets areamounts to 20 million dollars and that raise the sum
“Right now is completely unrealistic”
.
"Nothing belongs to anyone, Venezuela is like abandoned territory
," he denounced.
Link to drug trafficking
The court ruled on Friday that
"the moral damage caused is very serious, because it directly affected his person and affected his family"
, referring to the complainant.
This conviction is the judicial follow-up to a complaint filed in 2015 by Diosdado Cabello against
El Nacional
following the reproduction of an article in the Spanish newspaper ABC which linked him to drug trafficking.
At the same time, he lodged a complaint against ABC in Spain and
the Wall Street Journal
in the United States.
Both of these complaints were dismissed.
In 2018, Diosdado Cabello won a first lawsuit in Venezuela against the media which had been ordered to pay a billion bolivars, the equivalent of about 600 dollars on the black market at the time.
The daily described the decision as an attack on freedom of expression.
El Nacional
, an emblematic newspaper founded in 1943 by the Venezuelan writer Miguel Otero Silva, ceased to circulate in print edition in December 2018, after 75 years of history, including two decades of opposition to the governments of Hugo Chavez (1999-2013 ) and his successor Nicolas Maduro.
The government of Nicolas Maduro accuses the press of serving the plots of the opposition to overthrow him.
