On August 16, the Minister of Defense of Uruguay said that the government consulted with political and religious leaders about the fate of the bronze sculpture depicting the Nazi eagle from the German battleship Graf Spee, found in 2006.
The head of the Jewish community of Uruguay, Israel Buskanets, stated that the main task of the community would not be to create a cult place for the Nazis, attracting "pilgrims" from other places. "If it is sold and leaves the country, then this problem will not be," he concluded.
"Count Spee" was one of the Nazi "pocket battleships" sent in 1939 in a pirate raid along the South Atlantic. In December 1939 the ship, damaged in battle, was locked up by an English squadron in Montevideo. Then the dead and wounded sailors were taken ashore, and the ship, by order of Hitler, was flooded a few miles from Montevideo.
In February 2006, a search team found and raised an eagle figure weighing over 800 pounds from the stern of the ship. Since then, it is stored in a warehouse of the Navy. The search engines demanded the right to sell the find, but the Supreme Court of Uruguay ruled in 2014 that the eagle belongs to the Uruguayan state. However, it was decided that in case of the sale of the eagle, the search engines will be entitled to 50% of the proceeds.
Opposition lawmaker Jorge Gandini suggested selling an eagle to raise funds for Uruguayan military. Former President Julio Maria Sanguinetti commented on this information in a newspaper article stating that the eagle should remain in Uruguay because of its historical significance. "To imagine that, as some say, this can lead to a certain Nazi cult, it is really absurd, because in reality it is, on the contrary, a monument to their defeat," he wrote.