Colombia accelerates efforts to recover $20 billion worth of treasure from the sea.

The wreck of the battleship San Jose is believed to be the hiding place of a $20 billion treasure.

The New York Post reported on November 6th that Colombia is accelerating its efforts to recover a $20 billion treasure of gold, silver, and precious stones from a three-century-old shipwreck, even as American treasure hunters are suing for ownership of half of the hoard.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has directed the establishment of a public-private partnership or an agreement with a private company to salvage the wreck of the warship San Jose from the Caribbean Sea as soon as possible.

Colombian Culture Minister Juan David Correa said this is one of the priorities during President Petro's term. Accordingly, the leader wants to salvage the shipwreck before his term ends in 2026, although it is unclear whether this is feasible.

When sunk by the British in the battle of 1708, the Spanish warship San Jose was equipped with 62 guns and carried a treasure hoard accumulated over six years, including gold and silver from mines in Peru, chests full of Colombian emeralds, and numerous gold and silver coins worth millions of pesos.

This is an estimate by American historian Carla Rahn Phillips, although no one knows for sure how much the treasure is worth. However, in cases spanning decades, the treasure is estimated to be worth between $4 billion and $20 billion.

The cannons found on the seabed that the Colombian government claims are from the wreck of the San Jose.

In 1981, an American company, Glocca Morra, claimed to have found the wreck of the San Jose and handed over the coordinates in exchange for half of the treasure.

In 2015, then-Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos announced that the Colombian Navy, in cooperation with a company called MAC, had found the shipwreck in a different location.

Those coordinates are a national secret, but Sea Search Armada, which took over from Glocca Morra, later claimed that the 2015 expedition had found part of the shipwreck area they had previously discovered.

The company took its case to arbitration in London (UK) under the US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement, and is seeking $10 billion, equivalent to half of its assets.

Minister Correa stated that the claim was unfounded, as the Colombian government had visited the coordinates provided by the company and concluded that there was no shipwreck there.

Regarding future plans, he said the government wants to establish an archaeological laboratory to clean, study, and store the artifacts found from the shipwreck before displaying them in a national museum.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/colombia-tang-toc-truc-vot-kho-bau-20-ti-usd-duoi-bien-185231106173025781.htm