El Nacional Headquarters Handed Over to Diosdado Cabello Following Supreme Court Order

The Third Civil Mercantile, Transit and Banking Court of First Instance of Venezuela has handed over the headquarters of El Nacional newspaper, together with the land in which it is located, to National Assembly (AN) deputy Diosdado Cabello.

The procedure was executed in compliance with a judicial order imposed on El Nacional as a result of a defamation lawsuit filed by Diosdado Cabello.

The judicial process began on August 11, 2015, when Cabello filed the lawsuit against El Nacional, claiming damages for its publication of a report in the Spanish newspaper ABC, in which the deputy was accused—without evidence—of alleged links with narcotrafficking.

In August 2021, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) ratified its sentence against El Nacional, declaring inadmissible the review petition filed by the newspaper, and ordered the outlet to pay Cabello 237,000 Petros ($13 million).

This ruling came about after El Nacional had asked for review of three former sentences against it, claiming that the compensation order constitutes “a new and excessive sentence.”

However, on that occasion the TSJ discarded the three former sentences, and instead confirmed the compensation ruling.

That review petition was El Nacional’s last recourse to reverse the sentence, so now El Nacional’s premises have been handed over to Cabello as compensation for moral damages.

The ruling of the TSJ declared that “the indexation or the monetary compensation is not new, but rather forms part of the original fulfillment of compensation for damages.”

On repeated occasions, Cabello has promised to turn the headquarters of El Nacional into a university for journalism or to use the land for construction of community housing.

Featured image: The premises of El Nacional newspaper in Caracas. File photo

(RedRadioVE) by Ana Perdigón

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

OT/GMS/SC