Internet providers block the website of the newspaper El Nacional, days after statements by Diosdado Cabello

The website of the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional was blocked by “the main internet providers” in the country days after its headquarters were handed over to Chavismo’s number two, Diosdado Cabello, as part of the compensation for “moral damage” ordered by the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ), denounced this Saturday the NGO VE sin Filter.

This was warned by Your Excellency without a filter in a statement in which you recall that this Wednesday, two days after the delivery of the newspaper’s headquarters to Chavismo’s number two was confirmed, Cabello said that El Nacional still owed him part of the compensation, so I was studying “going through the web page” of the newspaper.

“Most of the main internet providers have implemented blockades against El Nacional, a major news outlet, just two days after Diosdado Cabello threatened the outlet saying: ‘Now it makes me want to go to the El Nacional page.’ Cabello is one of the main leaders of the government of Nicolás Maduro,” the organization explained in a statement.

Diosdado Cabello says that the newspaper El Nacional still owes him compensation for “moral damage”

Before this case, “the only active blockade was a blockade” in CANTV, the state telecommunications company and the most used in Venezuela.

This case, according to VE sifilter, is part of “a new wave of censorship”, at a time when “Venezuelans already have very limited options for independent traditional media, and on the Internet, censorship against the media has been growing, still limiting plus their right to information and free expression.”

“For more than five years, the blocking of news websites has been increasing, often in waves that respond to protests, scandals and other sensitive events for the Government. By the end of 2021, including during the regional elections, at least 35 media outlets were blocked from the internet,” they explained.

In addition, they have denounced “the blocking of multimedia ‘streaming’ or ‘hosting’ tools used by media outlets, such as Soundcloud and livestream.com”, as well as “the blocking of tools to evade blockades”.

“At the beginning of 2022, the current censorship campaign began, in which there are a large number of new blocking events, especially against the press. The beginning of this campaign seems to coincide with the end of events where the gaze of international organizations is fixed on the exercise of rights in Venezuela”, they affirmed.

Cabello denounced El Nacional for replicating information from the Spanish newspaper ABC, which indicated that the Chavista leader was being investigated by the US for alleged links to drug trafficking.

The TSJ issued a ruling stating that the Venezuelan newspaper had to pay Cabello 237,000 petros (cryptocurrency promoted by the Venezuelan government) at the exchange rate of the day, which meant 13,369,170 dollars.

The Supreme notified of the seizure of the newspaper’s headquarters last May as part of the compensation.

On Monday, the Venezuelan Justice handed over the headquarters to Cabello, which the media described as an “irregular and clandestine judicial auction.”