The reasons why Colombia still can not recover the multi-million dollar treasures of the San José galleon

Three years ago, Colombia announced to the world that it had discovered "the Holy Grail of shipwrecks": the Spanish galleon San José, a ship with bronze cannons, ceramic pieces, gold, silver and emeralds 1,500 million USD.

This legacy, submerged three centuries ago by English ships, in the midst of a period of maritime clashes between the ocean powers of Spain and England, continues unabated. Be saved for the moment.

The Colombian authorities are concerned that payments to the contractor include parts from the San José galleon.

"We disagree with any possibility of sale, monetization or payment of these sunken species and we also exclude any possibility of division. Discovery must remain united and exposed for Colombians and visitors to the world"said Vice President Marta Lucia Ramirez on March 6th.

He also recalled that since January 2015, ten months before the announcement of the discovery, the government of Santos and Maritime Archeology Consultants Ltd (MAC) had begun a process of recruitment using the public-private partnership " without disbursement of public resources in order to carry out the exploration, the intervention, the economic use and the preservation of the galleon ".

However, he added that over the last seven months, the new government has "scrutinized" the process of the badociation with great attention and believes that "some of its legal elements" raise doubts and will therefore help to identify "the best legal formulas to find one that allows all coins recovered in the galleon to remain in Colombia, legacy of all Colombianss ".

The positioning of Spain

Although in the beginning it was reported that Spain would dispute anything that could be extracted from the Galeón de San José, because it was a Spanish ship, the European country supported Colombia in his decision to stop a possible extraction that could jeopardize the treasure.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain stated that it also sought to prevent the pieces found in the galleon end up in auction houses or in the mansion of a wealthy collector.

The San José galleon had sailed from Panama to the port of Cartagena and had planned to arrive in Havana and then leave for Spain.

But an offensive of the English ship expedition It sank and about 600 men died in the wreckage.

76º 00 & # 39; 20 "W 10º 13 & # 39; 33" N are the coordinates in which the government found the remains of the ship flying the Spanish flag, with the support of the prestigious private enterprise Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), which also contributed to the discovery of Titanic.

Iván Duque said that he would look in the coming months "a legal formula that allows all items recovered in the galleon to remain in Colombia, legacy of all Colombians. "

A Cartagena historian, Francisco Muñoz, felt that what was to happen was the construction of a museum displaying all the treasure.

Colombia calculates that about a thousand ships, with different wealth, are still sunk under its waters.