Venezuela: headquarters of the newspaper El Nacional seized 2:15
(CNN Spanish) -
On Monday, the lawyers of the newspaper El Nacional presented an appeal for amparo asking to suspend the effects of the embargo on its main headquarters in Caracas, which was finalized on Friday as part of compensation for moral damages claimed by Diosdado Cabello, a deputy of the National Assembly and first vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
Jorge Makriniotis, general manager of the company, reported that the measure seeks to safeguard the interests and assets of the newspaper, which has circulated since 1943 and maintains a critical line of the government of the questioned President Nicolás Maduro.
The embargo was finalized after the Supreme Court of Justice of Venezuela ordered El Nacional to compensate Cabello with some US $ 13.6 million.
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The amount was set at 237,000 petros, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency, which is trading at 56.40 per dollar.
The ruling, published in April by the Civil Cassation Chamber, assures that the publication of an article against Cabello generated “a public contempt, which affected him in his personal and family sphere, as well as in front of his social environment in general. , being subjected to public derision without any justification ”.
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A member of the Bolivarian National Guard stands guard on the main access road to the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional on May 14, 2021. (Credit: Yuri Cortez / AFP / Getty Images)
The leader sued the newspaper in 2015 after it published a note, originally published in Spain's ABC newspaper, accusing Cabello of being linked to drug trafficking.
The deputy has rejected those allegations.
On Friday, after learning about the occupation of El Nacional, Cabello tweeted: «The competent courts, within the process of my lawsuit against El Nacional, have carried out the measures to fix posters and notify the executive embargo, and the process has begun payment of compensation ”.
What could happen in the future with the headquarters of El Nacional?
Makriniotis made statements to the media in front of the newspaper's headquarters shortly after he tried unsuccessfully to enter the place, which is under the control of military personnel.
There was present a group of young people who identified themselves as part of the Bolivarian student movement.
The young people refused to comment to the media.
However, from a distance they shouted slogans against El Nacional and assured that the headquarters of the "International University of Communication" will operate there.
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In several statements, Cabello has said that he is not interested in keeping the property that houses El Nacional.
He stated that, if favored by the courts, he would donate the building to run a university focused on teaching communication.
Makriniotis assured that the installation was taken as an embargo but, in his opinion, it is basically "an undue expropriation and forced seizure, a violation of due process."
Makriniotis assures that with this procedure they violated their patrimonial rights and unduly removed them from the building where this communication medium had operated since 2007.
