Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional's headquarters handed over to Diosdado Cabello

Venezuelan courts handed over the headquarters of the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional to Diosdado Cabello, the Venezuelan government’s number two man, following a lawsuit filed by the pro-Chávez politician.

Judge Lisbeth del Carmen Amoroso Hidrobo, sister of Maduro's Comptroller General, Elvis Amoroso Hidrobo, awarded Cabello the headquarters of the newspaper, which has continued to be critical of the Venezuelan regime.

El Nacional’s building was seized in May 2021 as part of the compensation for "moral damages" of more than $13 million ordered by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) due to Cabello's lawsuit.

"In an irregular and clandestine judicial auction carried out in violation of all the procedural rules that Venezuelan law requires to be complied with to carry out this type of acts (...) directly awarded the ownership of the headquarters of El Nacional and the lots of land on which it is built to Diosdado Cabello", reported El Nacional.

Cabello criticized the newspaper for replicating a report by the Spanish newspaper ABC, which claimed that he was being investigated by the United States for alleged links to drug trafficking.

The TSJ ruled that El Nacional had to pay Cabello 237,000 Petros—the cryptocurrency promoted by the regime— equivalent to $13,369,170.

"This illegal ruling, which due to the irregular way in which it was executed, could well be described as 'judicial theft', makes up part of the sentence imposed on the newspaper for the alleged moral damages caused when, in the legitimate exercise of its investigative journalism, the newspaper transcribed an article from the Spanish newspaper ABC where it was stated that U.S. officials were investigating Cabello for alleged links to drug trafficking", El Nacional added.

After filing the charges, Cabello threatened the newspaper, promising that the headquarters would be converted into a university or its land would be used to build low-income housing. "I don't want money for myself," Cabello said in one of his statements about the case.

The Venezuelan justice considered that Cabello was a "victim of a very serious moral damage."

"In this way, the judicial dispossession or snatching of its natural headquarters by El Nacional, which is the victim of litigation against Cabello, right in the court of the sister of the Comptroller General of the Republic, all for defending the truth," the newspaper concludes.