A court in Venezuela ordered the newspaper El Nacional, critical of the government, to pay more than double the million-dollar compensation previously set for “moral damage” to a powerful Chavista leader, exceeding 30 million dollars (about 24 million euros), reported this same medium.
A court in Caracas determined the payment of “the amount in bolivars equivalent” to 533,250 petros, a cryptocurrency created by Chavismo, which is equivalent to 30.05 million dollars at the official exchange rate this Thursday, according to a judicial communication released by El Nacional. on your website.
The ordered figure exceeds double what the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) had determined in April, equivalent to some 13.4 million dollars, in favor of Diosdado Cabello, deputy and number two of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela ( PSUV). Cabello won a defamation lawsuit that he filed in 2015 against the newspaper after it reproduced a report from the Spanish newspaper ABC that linked him to drug trafficking..
The Venezuelan justice considered that the politician was “victim” of “very serious moral damage”. The new compensation, continues the judicial text dated this coming Friday, June 11, “must be calculated according to the value of the petro at the time of effective payment” and also includes “procedural costs” that “ascend” to 59,250 petros, that is to say $3.3 million, already included in the total.
On May 14, the Venezuelan justice seized the headquarters of El Nacional, in Caracas, to cover the 13 million dollars in compensation. The newspaper, for its part, described the embargo as “illegal,” while its president, Miguel Henrique Otero, called the multimillion-dollar ruling issued by the TSJ “disguised expropriation.”.
Cabello – who also unsuccessfully filed lawsuits against ABC in Spain and The Wall Street Journal in the United States in 2015 – has proposed that a Communications University operate in the El Nacional building. El Nacional, founded in 1943, ceased to circulate in print in December 2018 after 75 years of history, including two decades of clashes with the governments of Hugo Chávez (1999-2013) and his successor, Nicolás Maduro.