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InterNations
Venezuela

Venezuela To Germany: Give Us Back Our Sacred Rock!

TELSUR (Venezuela)

CARACAS Venezuelan authorities have vowed to submit a formal request for the repatriation of a 30-ton rock that currently sits in the downtown Tiergarten park in Berlin, Germany.

The 12-cubic-meter "Kueka" stone used to belong to an indigenous tribe in Venezuela called the Pemón, which consider it to be sacred. Kueka translates as "grandmother" in the language spoken by the Pemón, Telesurreports.

(Wikipedia)

Then-president Rafael Caldera offered the stone in 1998 to a German artist named Wolfang von Schwarzenfeld, who took it from its original display site – in the Canaima National Park in southern Venezuela – and transported it to Berlin. Von Schwarzenfeld carved and polished the Kueka rock before putting on display as part of a project called "Global Stone."

Members of the Pemón tribe tried in vain to prevent the rock's departure from Venezuela, at one point blocking the highway along which the Kueka was being transported. Venezuela's ailing president, Hugo Chávez, has said on several occasions that Germany – which considers the stone a legitimate gift – should give up their claims.

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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

And If Ukraine's Fate Was In The Hands Of Republican Senators And Viktor Orban?

In the U.S., Republican senators called on to approve military aid to Kyiv are blackmailing the Biden administration on an unrelated matter. In Europe, French President Macron will be dining with the Hungarian Prime Minister, who has threatened to block aid to Ukraine as well.

photo of viktor orban walking into a room

Orban will play all his cards

Sergei Savostyanov/TASS via ZUMA
Pierre Haski

-Analysis-

PARIS — Make no mistake: military aid to Ukraine is at risk. And to understand why, just take a look at the name of French President Emmanuel Macron’s dinner guest Thursday at the Elysée palace in Paris: Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister, and Europe’s No. 1 troublemaker.

Orban is threatening to veto a new 50 billion euro aid package for Ukraine at a European Council meeting next week. He could also block Ukraine’s negotiations to enter the European Union, an important issue that has provided some hope for this war-torn country. These are votes on which the unanimity of the "27" EU member states is required.

But this is not the only obstacle in the path of Western aid: the United States is also immersed in a political psychodrama, of which Ukraine is the victim. A new $60 billion aid package from the Biden administration has stalled in Congress: Republicans are demanding legislation to shut down the border with Mexico to stop immigration.

What does this have to do with Ukraine? Nothing, besides legislative blackmail.

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