The replica of the sculpture of María Lionza in front of the Central University in Caracas (Venezuela) Alicolmenares

At dawn and with the help of cranes, María Lionza, a 6.7-meter-tall woman embarking naked on top of a tapir with a pelvic bone as an offering sculpted by Venezuelan Alejandro in 1951, was stolen from the Central University of Venezuela Hill. The work was part of the art inventory of the university city, which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The piece traveled more than 300 kilometers in a barge to reach Quibayo on Mount Sorte, where it is venerated by spiritism every October 12, the same day America and Europe are divided between conquerors and indigenous peoples in resistance . An old wish of Chavismo, which for almost 20 years struggled with the autonomy of the university for the revered piece, has materialized by force.

María Lionza, like almost everything in Venezuela, has polarized the country. In the first few hours there was talk of the theft of the huge sculpture. University authorities reported the incident and police treated it as theft. Only until the Venezuelan Federation of Spiritism confirmed in a statement that the painting had not been stolen but taken to the state of Yaracuy, where in the early 20th century there was clarity on what appeared to be an exploit by a network of art dealers. To, Culture Minister Ernesto VillegasShe wrote on Twitter: “Maria Lionza was ‘virtually abducted’ for almost 20 years in a place inaccessible to humans. According to Nicolás Maduro’s government, she has now been “released”.

18 years ago, in June 2004, the sculpture of María Lionza that now stands on the altar of Sorte, split in two. Years outdoors and poor handling of the work trying to make some molds to replicate caused the breakage. But in this Venezuela that was also beginning to fracture, what happened to Colina’s sculpture — with an extensive work in the city dedicated to indigenous chiefs — was providential. The piece broke at the waist on the eve of the referendum against Hugo Chávez, who was beginning to show his authoritarian role model’s teeth. “María Lionza, take him away!” some shouted as they walked past the image that has been an urban symbol on Caracas’ main street for decades, formerly known as Francisco Fajardo and recently renamed Gran Cacique Guaicaipuro, Chief of Chief became. The piece was right in front of the university that owns it, and the most zealous Marialonceros crossed the street, at the risk of being run over, to bring flowers and offerings.

This almost two-decade-old struggle began with the fragment. The University took care of the restoration with the patience of a restorer, together with the Foundation that manages the work of the sculptor Alejandro Colina. The lawsuit between the Caracas Mayor’s Office and the university, who disputed the care, reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of the UCV. A year later it was restored, but the acting mayor — then Freddy Bernal, the official who sealed the opening of the border between Colombia and Venezuela a week ago — had already put a fiberglass and resin replica in its place. The university claimed its pedestal to place the original, but the so-called “goddess with the eyes of water,” which Panamanian salsa singer Rubén Blades made a song for, had a usurper. And another myth was built on local political gossip.

In its war of symbols, Chavismo not only went on the offensive with the copy, but a few months ago erected a few meters from María Lionza’s copy a huge and criticized golden brass sculpture representing the Guaicaipuro Indian. Accompanying the image are tiny men and women in Guayuco and a deformed concrete jaguar, crowning the street’s new name in honor of the “boss of bosses,” the epithet Google’s artificial geolocation intelligence is already repeating with its robotic sound on some sections of the street Autobahn where the name change was updated.

The Presidential Commission for the Recovery of the University City intervened a year ago on the campus, which was badly deteriorated due to lack of maintenance due to the budget suffocation that the government had subjected public university houses to. What happened to the sculpture was seen as a new blow to the autonomy that the Venezuelan constitution enshrines for these institutions.

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The intervention managed to renovate the university, but it did not go smoothly. One of these was conducted by Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, who, also at dawn, wanted to inspect the works in the university’s Aula Magna and struggled to open the doors and show them to Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. In a statement, the commission reported that the Cultural Heritage Institute had issued “urgent measures” to protect María Lionza, who had been held in a shed for 18 years, waiting to be housed where the government placed the copy and “return to Venezuelans the right to worship and enjoy” the image.

“A month ago we prophesied that the Queen’s Sphinx would reach her land. Today we are making history,” stresses Richard Pérez, President of the Venezuelan Federation of Spiritism, in a video recorded by the official caravan that escorted the piece from Caracas to the state of Yaracuy in the west of the country. On the news, he signals to Nicolasito, Nicolás Maduro Guerra (Maduro’s son) and members of his cabinet. The coveted piece, kept in a shed for years, will now be in the care of Marialonceros cultists in the humid tropical forest of Sorte while the myth of the Venezuelan government’s ties to spiritual religions is dispelled.

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The killing of Dugin’s daughter would be Ukraine’s responsibility, but it’s not clear why American intelligence would leak the news. So far, the end of the war could only be on the ground because the two countries mutually refused to negotiate peace

I read the news in the New York Times about American intelligence agencies attributing the authorization of the August 20 attack in which she died, probably instead of her father, to figures in the Ukrainian government. Daria Dugina. Then I read a few hundred comments from readers. Many wondered what was prompting the leaking services at the time. I once wondered that too. The dominant argument is the already apparent dissatisfaction with the secrecy of Ukrainians about their covert operations from American intelligence: “We are better informed about Russian operations than about Ukrainians”. The authors of the tip offered a more detailed explanation: concern that targeted killings across the border, other than attacks on collaborators in the occupied territories, would revive the original Russian intent to kill Zelensky and other figures of the Kiev government.

At this point, now that I was in the game, I wondered if the message should be accompanied by an implicit warning not to dream of killing Putin. Both steps, it could be said, would have unpredictable and potentially deadly consequences. But in the previous 24 hours alone, both Putin and Zelenskyy had apparently made no counter-gestures: Putin solemnly declared eternity — “forever” — of the annexation of the four regions, Zelenskyy solemnly signed the bar on any negotiations as long as Putin stays with the Kremlin. The two presidents, whom Pope Francis had just addressed by name, had just committed themselves to the constitution mutual insurmountable obstacle to negotiation. Situation that could make the temptation to get rid of one or the other more tempting, which the American leak apparently wanted to dissuade.

The Kremlin quickly recognized this and at the same time instructed the Western puppeteers to rule out negotiations with Putin while he was in office. Everything looks pretty convoluted: biting the tail. The Americans continue to provide funds and arms, being careful to avoid long ranges, and Biden and his administration likely won’t want to see a major breakthrough given field operations favoring Ukraine and midterm elections a month away. Yesterday Moscow’s spokesmen got used to cheek and outdid themselves, among other things by asserting that they wanted to cool down the rhetoric of the use of nuclear bombs, which the West would have at its disposal. But assuming that at some point in the competitor lineup you want to test out negotiation, what will you bet on?

Russia, which even sees Crimea threatened in Kherson, burned the ground behind it with the “eternal” annexation of Zaporizhia, aggravated by the indiscriminate bombing of the capital that remained in Ukrainian hands. Ukraine has banned all talks with Putin, and anyone familiar with the common sense that has largely prevailed in Ukraine knows that Zelenskyy’s willingness to negotiate, which includes renouncing any part of the occupied territory, would turn him against an insurgency. A negotiation could only be opened if the Americans, NATO and the Western coalition insist on taking full responsibilitythe discharge of Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian leadership: a possibility that is almost unthinkable today.

Perhaps the leak of news about Ukraine’s complicity in the assassination of Dugina was just one of them small taste warning, pulled a bridle. But the reciprocity of the alleged proxy war is confirmed, and the exchange of parts between supposed puppeteer and puppet. Except for an unforeseeable event – that must always be foreseeable – or a change within the Russian Federation, nothing can happen at the moment.

Or the Secret Service news about Dugina was nothing more than a New York Times scoop. The press, beauty.

Anna Politkovskaya was killed in the elevator of her apartment building on October 7, 2006, the day of Vladimir Putin’s 54th birthday. described the birth and confirmation of the Putinian regime and the failure of post-Soviet Russia’s democratic hopes, and examined in detail the crimes committed in Chechnya by the Moscow troops and local militias of the Islamist Quisling Ramzan Kadyrov, whom Putin will appoint as president in 2007 for anti-terrorist Distinguished merits and would have fueled and accompanied the delirium to this day.

After the murder, Putin sneered, claiming that the murdered journalist’s influence on Russian political life had been overestimated, that her death would do more damage than her writings, and that someone with an interest in delegitimizing official bodies could be behind the crime.

The trial that follows, which will drag on for many years, will result in some convictions for the alleged perpetrator and his accomplices, but will not shed any light on the perpetrators of the murder. The European Court of Human Rights will sentence Russia in 2018 on appeal of the victim’s family members for violating the art. 2 ECHR precisely because he did not want to examine the investigative hypothesis of the involvement of the Russian and Chechen security services in order to establish responsibility for the murder.

Three days after the fact, on October 10, Russian journalists and intellectuals, many ordinary people, no representative of the Moscow institutions and no European politicians, except Marco Pannella, who had been active in the Radical Party for years, attended Anna Politkovskaya’s funeral , just like Politkovskaya, to shed light on the Chechen scenario as a real laboratory of the Putin regime.

Both Pannella and Politkovskaya had understood that the second Chechen war would not only have destroyed the small Caucasian republic, but also the hope for effective democratization in Russia. By restoring order in Chechnya with a criminal regime, Russia would become, even on a larger scale, a power system modeled after the characteristics of the Mafia Emirate of Kadyrov. The facts proved them right. In the end, Putin not only brought his Moscow to Grozny, but above all his Grozny back to Moscow.

Before and after the assassination of the Russian journalist, the radicals tried in all international forums, from the UN to the European Parliament, to denounce a looming threat with absolute clarity, and they too were forced to call out a brave and passionate fighter. Radio Radicale correspondent Antonio Russo, who was killed in Tbilisi in 2000 while documenting war crimes in Chechnya.

Throughout these years, the Radical Party brought the direct testimony of Umar Khanbiev, Minister of Health of the Chechen government-in-exile, about the use of indiscriminate massacres, killings and violence against civilians, torture, rape and kidnapping, as well as parallel military and widespread, to the Chechen resistance to smash. Outrageous truths, but inconsistent with the sweetened image that the Putin regime and its “anti-terror” war preferred to project in the West by resolutely deciding to inscribe this criminal military campaign into the schedule of anti-Islamist operations launched on the around the world runs after September 11, 2011.

However, it should be admitted that it was an anti-Islamist operation with grotesque and paradoxical connotations when its result was to establish in Grozny a regime that applies Sharia law and that brought hundreds of thousands of people to the square after the Charlie Hebdo massacre brought not to protest against the massacre of cartoonists, but to defend Mohammed.

After Pannella posed at Moscow’s Troekurovsky Cemetery at the funeral of Anna Politkovskaya and jointly claimed the weight and pride of their respective loneliness, Pannella immediately returned to express her outrage at the subsequent exploits of the Putinian regime and the daily news Die Ukraine gives almost a prophetic light.

“Less than 24 hours ago – he said in the Brussels hemicycle – I was in Moscow and wanted to wear the sash for a moment as an MEP while I was among the thousands of people who paid the highest homage to Anna Politkovskaya. Then I thought it would be an insult to those eyes that couldn’t see me either to see our emblem raised. This woman, this journalist, told us what you didn’t want to hear and didn’t want to see».

As predicted by Pannella and Politkovskaya, the horrors Europe did not want to see would reappear in even more violent and monstrous forms. The excavation of the mass graves of Bucha and Izyum began precisely in the years when the mass graves in the Chechen mountains were allegedly not filled, when the Kremlin gang leader was presented as an ally and guarantor of stability, and not only Putin’s friends, but the Majority of European politicians vouched for his reliability and the necessary recognition of his leadership in order not to abandon Russia to dangerous post-imperial frustrations and shocks.

As we can see, exactly the opposite happened, that is, everything Pannella and Politkovskaya said followed the stupid pretense of confusing Putin’s legitimacy with his neutralization.

At least 84 migrants have been “rescued” after a shocked local resident saw the group climb out of a tractor trailer in Texas, near the border with Mexico.

The group was unloaded from the 18-wheeler vehicle Thursday outside a home in Olivarez, a community north of Weslaco.

Representatives from the Hidalgo Sheriff’s Office and US Border Patrol agents arrived at the home, which is about eight miles north of the United States-Mexico border.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra told CNN that all of the migrants were from Central America and did not require medical attention.

U.S. Border Patrol agents and deputies from the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office met 84 migrants Thursday after a resident saw them being pulled from a tractor-trailer in Olivarez, a Texas community eight miles north of the United States-Mexico border. were unloaded

It is not known if the migrants seen emerging from the tractor trailer were smuggled straight in from Mexico or if they were in another Texas city before being found in front of a resident in the small town of Olivarez

He added that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) took over the investigation.

A spokesman for the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office told the migrants were picked up by US Border Patrol for processing.

It is not known if the group was smuggled out of Mexico directly on the truck or transported from another location.

“We continue to address the serious threats to public safety posed by human smuggling organizations and their reckless disregard for the health and safety of those smuggled,” HSI said in a statement to .

According to CBP data, in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2022, from October 1, 2021 to September 20, 2022, U.S. Border Patrol agents reported 2.1 million encounters with migrants who illegally crossed the southwest border.

The agency’s Rio Grande Valley sector, which covers more than 34,000 square miles in southeast Texas, was responsible for just over 440,000 of the bans.

U.S. Border Patrol agents reported 2.1 million encounters with migrants illegally crossing the southwest border in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2022

The 18-wheeler used to smuggle 84 migrants who got off in front of a home in Olivarez, Texas on Thursday. The group hails from Central America and was taken into custody by US Border Patrol agents for processing

The driver who abandoned the tractor trailer in the sweltering Texas heat that killed 53 migrants was “very high on meth” when police arrested him

Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, drove the tractor trailer stuffed with Mexican, Guatemalan, Salvadoran and Honduran migrants before leaving it near San Antonio. A total of 53 people died in the smuggling incident

The finding comes three months after 53 migrants died when they were left trapped in a tractor-trailer on a remote road near Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio.

According to Homeland Security Investigations, 48 ​​people were found dead at the scene on June 27.

The driver, Homero Zamorano Jr., and three other people were arrested in connection with the botched smuggling incident.

The 45-year-old, who is facing a deadly alien smuggling case, was trying to disguise himself as a migrant and was “very high on meth” when he was arrested while hiding in the undergrowth.

Christian Martinez, 28, was arrested on June 28 and charged with conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, resulting in death. Authorities said he was in regular contact with Zamorano Jr. about the smuggling incident.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told CNN at the time that the incident was “a crime against humanity.”

“The floor of the trailer was completely covered with bodies. All covered in bodies,’ he added.

“There were at least 10 or more bodies outside the trailer because when we arrived when the ambulance arrived we were trying to find people who were still alive. So we had to lift the bodies out of the trailer onto the ground.”

Several sources in Washington told CNN that the US President’s statements made to a small committee were not based on new information.

During the night from Thursday to Friday, US President Joe Biden wanted to get particularly serious. Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser organized in a New York apartment, the White House tenant warned of the threat of a nuclear “apocalypse” that he said had never been greater since the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

No new information

But are these threats really part of an irreversible escalation of tensions that could lead to the use of nuclear weapons for the third time since 1945? For Lova Rinel, researcher on nuclear deterrence, the statements made by Joe Biden, which are part of the nuclear rhetoric, are to be separated from what is really happening in the operational area, the so-called “strategic dialogue”.

“Strategic dialogue is military implementation. For example, are the bombers armed? These are discussions. And the various authorities confirm it: we are still talking to the Russian authorities on the issue. Level, so there is no increase in nuclear alert.” said the researcher BFMTV.

Following concerns over Joe Biden’s remarks, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre was forced to issue an update this Friday: “We have no reason to adjust our own stance on nuclear weapons, nor do we have any indication that we will.” Russia is preparing to use nuclear weapons immediately.”

Same story on the page of many senior American officials contacted by CNN. On condition of anonymity, they all assured that there was no evidence that Vladimir Putin intended to use nuclear fire or that he had taken any steps to that effect. Several senior officials were even surprised by the particularly serious tone Joe Biden used Thursday night when no new information reached the intelligence community.

concern among westerners

But the words of the American President illustrate the concern that is rising in Western law firms. And for several reasons. First, because Vladimir Putin has repeated many times since the invasion of Ukraine began that Russia would not hesitate to use all the weapons at its disposal should the situation deteriorate.

Currently, the Moscow army has suffered major setbacks in the operational sphere since September and the launch of a particularly effective counteroffensive by the Ukrainian army. This is evidenced by the recapture of Lyman, where Russian troops allowed themselves to be surrounded.

While the start of the offensive in February was marked by a united front of Russian elites behind their president, the first contradictory voices are becoming loud. According to the Washington Post, a very close adviser to Vladimir Putin, who is among his inner circle, recently told him that things were not going in the right direction. For his part, Chechen autocrat Ramzan Kadyrov proposed the use of strategic nuclear weapons on the battlefield to defuse the situation.

Can Vladimir Putin decide alone?

Would a cornered Vladimir Putin be more unpredictable? According to Russian nuclear doctrine, the use of nuclear weapons can only be justified by an attack that threatens the very existence of the Russian Federation. However, the current situation in Ukraine does not endanger the existence of Putin’s country, although it is up to him to define the term “existential threat”.

It also remains to be seen whether, under Russia’s nuclear decision-making scheme, a simple decision by Vladimir Putin is enough to initiate a strike. In Soviet times, such a decision had to be made jointly with the Minister of Armed Forces and the Chief of the General Staff. But nothing indicates that this principle was maintained with the fall of the USSR.

For researcher Lova Rinel, the current situation should be analyzed in terms of Russia’s nuclear strategy. “It’s part of their way of expressing themselves. Vladimir Putin, his entourage, spend their time blowing hot and cold. You play incendiary firefighters. This has one goal: to destabilize NATO, which is Russia’s enemy. They are trying to get the world on edge for us to stop sanctions and logistical support to Ukraine. It’s a nuclear dialectic showdown,” says the researcher.

Asked about the issue in Prague, the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron did not agree with Joe Biden’s recent remarks and refused to do “political fiction”.

Status: 07/10/2022 19:47

US President Biden has signed an executive order for a new data protection agreement between the US and the EU. The aim is to end a two-year stalemate that was triggered by a ruling by the European Court of Justice.

The US government is laying the groundwork for a much-needed new legal framework for the transfer of data from Europeans to the US. Among other things, President Joe Biden’s executive order provides for stricter requirements for secret services to access information. A central element is also a two-step mechanism for EU citizens to complain about what they consider to be illegal access.

“This is the culmination of our joint efforts to restore confidence and stability in transatlantic data flows,” said US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “This will enable a continuous flow of data that supports more than $1 trillion in cross-border trade and investment each year.”

First deal in March

Last March, the EU and the US agreed in principle to a new data protection agreement that should allow for the transfer of personal data to US digital companies. The European Court of Justice (CJ) revoked the previous “Privacy Shield” agreement in July 2020 due to allegations of espionage.

Specifically, it was about the transfer of data from Facebook’s European customers to the US. The court emphasized that the data exporter must verify that the data subject’s rights enjoy an equivalent level of protection in the US. US whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed years ago that US intelligence and other investigative agencies have extensive access to foreign user data.

Defined monitoring requirements

The decree now signed by Biden stipulates that surveillance of data flows by US secret services can only be carried out to achieve “defined national security objectives” and protect the “privacy and civil liberties” of all persons, regardless of nationality and place of residence. need to be considered.

The decree also provides mechanisms for EU citizens who believe they have been “unlawfully targeted by US intelligence activities”. The first tier will be a “civil liberties officer” attached to the US Secret Service Directorate, who will review complaints from EU citizens. The second phase is an independent data protection court that can review the employee’s decisions.

Corporations threatened to withdraw

The ECJ ruling created great legal uncertainty for companies with regard to the transfer of data between the US and the EU. Facebook’s Meta group always warns that the online network and Instagram in Europe will likely have to be discontinued if there is no successor plan.

EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders welcomed Biden’s signing. It was an “important step in our determination to restore safe and free transatlantic traffic,” Reynders wrote on Twitter.