Colombia will begin between April and June to extract pieces from the Spanish galleon 'San José'
The Minister of Culture of Colombia, Juan David Correa, has announced the start of an operation between April and June to begin removing pieces of the Spanish galleon 'San José', sunk off the coast of Cartagena de Indias, using a robotic arm.
“We will go with the boat in April, May or June, depending on the sea conditions. What we have is to put a robotic arm 600 meters deep,” Correa explained during an event at the Cartagena Naval Museum, reported by the Caracol Radio station.
“This is a kind of exploration, as if we were going to space to be able to recover two, three, four materials to be able to understand what happens to those objects when they appear on the surface, in the atmosphere after having been submerged for three centuries down there” , he has reported.
In this sense, Correa has ruled out that Colombia is going to recover the galleon's treasure this year.. The next investigation will be led by the General Maritime Directorate (Dimar) and the National Navy. The goal is to “extract some units from the archaeological wreck to investigate its cultural and technical dimensions.”
“For us this has historical, symbolic, cultural value, it does not have a price,” Correa highlighted in statements to Semana magazine.
The Government will spend 18,000 million pesos (4.2 million euros) on the project in 2024 alone and the idea is to work on a CONPES document (National Council for Economic and Social Policy) so that resources are assured for the next ten years. .
Litigation with a treasure hunting company
Meanwhile, the director in charge of the National Legal Defense Agency of the State, Paula Robledo, has highlighted that the State of Colombia has formally entered into international arbitration litigation with the company Search Armada before the Permanent Court of Arbitration for the economic rights over the galleon. .
The American treasure hunting company claims the rights to the discovery of the ship, as set out in an arbitration notice submitted on December 19, 2022.
“The message is very clear and transparent: the arbitration dispute with Search Armada for the economic rights of the galleon San José has just formally begun,” he noted during his speech at the international symposium Perspectives and challenges of the research project on the galleon 'San José' that is celebrated in Cartagena.
“This generates an alert that as a State we have to address in a coordinated manner [from] the culture, justice, defense sector and all of us who are part of this working group for the defense of our cultural heritage,” Robledo added.
For Robledo, “the path of our defense of the galleon 'San José' will not be an easy path”, since “Sea Search armada claims 10,000 million dollars, corresponding to what they call 50% of the galleon San José.”
Furthermore, he has indicated that the State's National Legal Defense Agency has “repelled the threats and claims of these treasure hunters in the courts of the District of Washington, including in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.”
Spanish ambassador
The Spanish ambassador to Colombia, Joaquín de Arístegui, participated in the event in Cartagena, and raised the possibility of reaching a bilateral agreement that would facilitate this research project.
“I have instructions from my Government to offer Colombia the possibility of working on a bilateral agreement to create a new paradigm in terms of protection of underwater heritage,” he noted.
The galleon 'San José' was a Spanish-flagged warship that sank in 1708 during a naval battle with 600 sailors on board.. The wreck is more than 600 meters deep.
Spain maintains that it is a state ship and, as such, its remains are considered an underwater grave and cannot be subject to commercial exploitation.