2021: U.S. Failure to Present Evidence of Drug Trafficking Cost a Venezuelan Newspaper $13.6 million

Diosdado Cabello is a leading member of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela. He served as Governor of Miranda 2004-2008, Minister of Public Works 2009-2010 and was elected to the National Assembly in 2010. He was elected President of the National Assembly in 2012.

On May 18, 2015, the Wall Street Journal published an article about a drug investigation: 

 “Venezuelan Officials Suspected of Turning Country into Global Cocaine Hub”
“U.S probe targets No.2 official Diosdado Cabello”

•        “U.S. prosecutors are investigating several high-ranking Venezuelan officials, including the President of the country’s Congress, on suspicion that they have turned the country into a global hub for cocaine trafficking, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the probes. An elite unit of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington and federal prosecutors in New York and Miami are building cases using evidence provided by former cocaine traffickers, informants who were once close to top Venezuelan officials and defectors from the Venezuelan military, these people say.”[1]

The WSJ included a caveat about the reliability of the accusations:

•        “Columbian and Venezuelan drug traffickers have arrived in the US eager to provide information on Venezuelan officials in exchange for sentencing leniency and residency. ‘We all know that whoever wants his green card and live in the US…can just pick his leader and accuse him of being a narco.’ (Tweet from a Venezuelan general).”[1]

The Spanish Newspaper ABC published the accusations as Fact. The Venezuelan Newspaper EL Nacional republished the ABC story. Cabello sued El Nacional for slander and challenged them to present “one piece of evidence-just one.”[2] Carlos Vecchio, a Venezuelan opposition leader living in the US, testified at a US Congressional field hearing in November 2015 and asked the US to provide the evidence backing up the drug trafficking claims saying:” We need to see the evidence that supports those investigations. This will help us to show to the Venezuelan people who are really in power.” The US provided no evidence.

El Nacional presented no evidence about Cabello and drugs. In April 2021, the Venezuelan Supreme Court ordered El Nacional to pay Cabello $13.6 million in libel damages.[3] El Nacional could not pay. In February 2022, the Court ordered El Nacional to turn over their Caracas HQ Building to Cabello.[4]



1.     Wall Street Journal, Venezuelan Officials Suspected of Turning Country into Global Cocaine Hub, May 18,2015.

2.     New York Times, U.S. focuses on Top Venezuelan Officials in a Broad Cocaine Inquiry, May 19, 2015

3.      Venezuelanalysis, El Nacional Newspaper to Pay Diosdado Cabello $13.6m Libel Damages, April 19, 2021

4.     Orinoco Tribune, El Nacional Headquarters Handed Over to Diosdado Cabello Following Supreme Court Order, 2/9/2022

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