CARACAS: A Venezuelan court on Friday seized the headquarters of the El Nacional newspaper, after it failed to pay a $13 million defamation award to top socialist party official Diosdado Cabello, both Cabello and the paper's leaders said. "This afternoon, the corresponding courts, in response to my lawsuit against El Nacional, have placed signage and notified of the seizure, and have initiated the process of paying the indemnization. Cabello wrote on his Twitter account. Jorge Makriniotis, El Nacional's manager, called the move "a new attack on democracy, freedom of expression, private property." "With this measure they will not break our critical editorial stance on the government," Makriniotis wrote on Twitter.

Source: The Star May 15, 2021 02:03 UTC