2023-06-18 22:13:00
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou announced this Sunday (18) the withdrawal of the project to transform the Nazi bronze eagle that adorned the German battleship Graf Spee, sunk in Uruguayan waters in 1939 at the beginning of World War II, into a peace dove. World.
“An overwhelming majority does not share this decision, and if we want to generate peace, the first thing we need to do is generate unity. Clearly this did not generate”, explained the president in the city of Melo, in the east of the country, where he traveled to honor a local personality.
Lacalle has already informed Uruguayan sculptor Pablo Atchugarry, who was in charge of the project, of his decision.
After being announced on Friday, the initiative was heavily criticized in different circles, from cultural to political, even within the government coalition itself.
“It was an idea that we had many years ago, precisely to transform a symbol of violence, war, into a symbol of peace and union,” said the president when announcing the project.
The imposing bronze eagle, with open wings and a swastika in the claws, measuring 2.8 meters long by 2 meters high and weighing 350 kilos, was recovered in 2006 in Rio de la Plata by a private team.
The “Almirante Graf Spee” acted together with the British cruisers “Exeter” and “Ajax”, and the New Zealand “Achilles” in the Battle of the River Plate, one of the first naval confrontations of the Second World War (1939-1945), which took place in off the Uruguayan coast on December 13, 1939.
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