A Venezuelan court seized the headquarters of El Nacional newspaper on Friday after the newspaper failed to pay a USD $13.3 million fine in a defamation lawsuit. The case was brought by Diosdado Cabello, the Vice President of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela, after the newspaper reprinted an article linking Cabello to drug trafficking.

El Nacional is an independently run newspaper that has been critical of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government. The newspaper stopped printing in 2018 due to state pressure on media companies and paper and toner shortages. The newspaper intends to continue as an online-only publication.

Initially, the newspaper was ordered to pay 1 billion bolivars following the defamation lawsuit. But arguing that hyperinflation made the bolivars’ value uncertain, Cabello’s lawyer successfully petitioned the court to request the fine to be paid in petros, a nationalized Venezuelan cryptocurrency. Following the judgment, El Nacional attempted to appeal on the grounds that the fine should be paid in bolivars, the national currency.

But with this decision, the Venezuelan government will seize El Nacional’s headquarters and all assets within the building. In a translated statement, El Nacional expressed that “Cabello’s attack on El Nacional is another method of subjugating the regime against freedom of expression.”

Meanwhile, Cabello has expressed that the El Nacional headquarters will be converted into a university: the International University of Communication.

The US Department of State has offered a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of Cabello. The State Department has linked Cabello with violent narco-terrorism and is considered the “illegitimate president of Venezuela’s Constituent National Assembly.”