The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned on Monday what it called the "consummation of the robbery" of the newspaper El Nacional de Venezuela by the country’s judiciary, a news outlet that, according to the organization, has become "part of the assets of Diosdado Cabello, number two of Chavismo."
The Venezuelan judiciary handed over the headquarters of the newspaper El Nacional to Cabello on Monday, whose seizure was notified last May as part of the compensation for "moral damages" of more than 13 million dollars ordered by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) after a lawsuit by the politician.
After a "questionable operation," says the IAPA in a statement, on January 27, Judge Lisbeth del Carmen Amoroso Hidrobo awarded the headquarters and land of El Nacional directly to Cabello, Vice President of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), currently in power.
This measure, indicates the hemispheric organization, "was executed irregularly, by not publicly informing the day, time and minimum amount for the interested parties to make their offers, in violation of the procedural rules required by law."
During the operation, carried out by the Third Civil, Commercial, Traffic and Banking Court of First Instance of the Caracas metropolitan area, the judicial representative of El Nacional was not notified either, it detailed.
This is "the consummation of the ‘theft of the century’ against independent journalism, something that can only happen in a dictatorship," said Jorge Canahuati, president of the IAPA.
Canahuati, CEO of Grupo Opsa, from Honduras, added that "the dictatorship has used all its weapons to shut down the media and muzzle the press during these 20 years, but this political-judicial strategy is perhaps the most creative."
As the statement recounts, Cabello sued the newspaper and its director, Miguel Henrique Otero, for publishing a report by the Spanish newspaper ABC in which he was linked to drug trafficking.
As a consequence, on April 16, 2021, the Supreme Court of Justice found El Nacional guilty of defamation and ordered it to pay Cabello compensation of 13.2 million dollars.
On May 14, 2021, the IAPA points out, a judge ordered the seizure of the newspaper’s facilities and assets.
"Without any shame, in an abusive way and turning its back on what the law dictates, it satisfies the claim of a politician who had been fervently threatening to make the newspaper disappear," said Carlos Jornet, president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, in the same statement.
"Once again we observe the lack of independence of a justice system subordinated to political power," he reiterated.
Canahuati and Jornet, director of the Argentine newspaper La Voz del Interior, added that "this serious outrage by the government against El Nacional and another 100 independent media outlets that have already disappeared will stain the history of Venezuela."
El Nacional has been published on the internet for years, even before the confiscation of the assets, due to the restrictions imposed by the Government; among them, the lack of access to the importation of paper and other products for printing, details the IAPA, based in Miami (USA).