They order Diario L. National to pay a millionaire to Diostato Capello

(CNN Espasol) – In a ruling issued this Friday, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered the El National newspaper, which criticizes the government of President Nicolas Maduro in question, to pay approximately $ 13.6 million in compensation to Deputy Diostato Capello. Claims for “non-monetary damage” are a number that the media considered “unpayable.”

The verdict, issued by the Civil Cassation Chamber, backed Capello, one of Chavismo’s most powerful figures, saying, “It was about public contempt against the person who had been slandered, and it affected him in his personal and family sphere.” Usually in front of his social environment, I saw him being ridiculed in public without any justification. ”

Diostato Cabello, the first vice-president of the ruling Socialist Party of Venezuela, sued the newspaper in August 2015 after the ABC de Espana newspaper first leaked the report, in which a member of parliament was questioned in the United States for alleged involvement in drug trafficking.

This amount was fixed at 237,000 petroleum, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency, which trades at 56.40 per dollar.

In a statement, the El National newspaper, with 77 years of operation, rejected Diostato Cabello’s view of what he called “political and judicial harassment” against its shareholders, managers and workers. They warn in the speech that the media intends to “become the owner and publisher by disguising it”.

“They could not buy our company using public funds, they could not suppress us with threats, abuse and all sorts of lawsuits. They could not bend our editorial line,” the newspaper said in its letter.

They never want to be slandered, but they make it clear that they are spreading information and opinions.

They added that there were no legal arguments in the sentence.

El Nation sent a clarification to the Supreme Court on its website this Saturday in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure, stating that the amount requested was “equivalent to the amount that has never been prosecuted or handled within the trial” and since October 2018 the plaintiff and the defendant have not been able to pay the final due without any reason. Amount not indicated. “

The newspaper explained that “this is a legal tender in Venezuela” and that they are asking that the sentence be measured in Bolivar.

CNN has contacted Congressman Capello to ask for his opinion on the news reports, but has not yet responded.

At the end of 2019, the legislator indicated in his plan to hand over the L National headquarters to operate a communications university “by giving maso”, once he reached a verdict in his favor.

Venezuelan NGOs Espaசியo Peplico and the Instituto de Prinza y Sociedad (IPOS) have repeatedly denounced their perception of a state policy of harassing and silencing the media, and generally voices critical of the government.