Colombia gives up paying San José galleon ransom with ship's assets

• Chronicle.Galeón San José: Sunk with the gold of the 'Holy Crusade' and the king's taxes
• Culture: This was the last battle of the galleon San José
• Fallo.Colombia seizes the treasure of the Spanish galleon San José

The Colombian government will not pay the rescue of the Spanish galleon San José, sunk in front of Cartagena de Indias in the 18th century by English privateers, with the assets found in the wreck, as the previous Executive had foreseen, Vice President Marta said Wednesday Lucia Ramirez.

"For the current Government, this payment formula is unacceptable! What is in the galleon San José can have great economic value, but first of all, each and every one of the pieces that are rescued are of enormous and incomparable cultural value and historical for Colombia and for the world, "Ramírez said in a statement.

The vice president recalled that to rescue the San José, the previous Government of Juan Manuel Santos, launched a process of contracting a public-private alliance that would be paid mainly with salvaged pieces of the same galleon, provided they were not declared as heritage on the basis of a controversial law passed shortly before its discovery was made public.

However, the Colombian president , Iván Duque, has repeatedly extended the deadline to hire the company that was to extract the San José in fear of the loss of national heritage, especially because of "the possibility of payment to contractor is made by delivering parts extracted from the galleon. "

"Its historical and cultural wealth is priceless and the right of Colombians to know, spread and preserve this cultural treasure is not negotiated and we cannot trade it for the world's antique dealers," Ramírez added.

The Colombian Congress passed a law, 1675 of July 30, 2013, which aims to "protect, make visible and recover the Submerged Cultural Heritage ."

According to said law, all the remains that are in Colombian waters, including "the shipwrecked species constituted by naval ships or artifacts and their endowment, their remains or parts, endowments or elements within them, are part of that heritage, whatever its nature or state, and whatever the cause of immersion, sinking or shipwreck. "

However, " commercial charges constituted by materials in their gross state, regardless of their origin, such as pearls, corals, precious and semiprecious stones, sand and wood," as well as "movable property," shall not be considered as submerged cultural heritage. series that would have had exchange or fiscal value such as coins and bullion. "

It also includes the possibility of making a private public alliance for a treasure hunter company to recover the wreck and obtain compensation of "up to 50% of the value of the goods (in this case, in the galleon) that do not constitute the nation's cultural heritage ".

Given this situation, the vice president said that "in the depths of the sea there are not only a lot of cannons, vessels and jewels and a handful of coins. There is a part of our history and the trajectory of the New World and should never be expressed. ".

"The Galleon San José is unique and indivisible! In it lies an important and valuable part of our history and our cultural trajectory," he said.

Ramírez also stressed that the rescue of San José "should only benefit the history of mankind" and should be "a contribution to knowledge and culture."

That is why he assured that the decision "is not just a conviction, it is a matter of public interest and a Constitutional obligation" that they must fulfill.

"The Constitution of Colombia gives our cultural heritage a 'reinforced constitutional protection' which implies that we must give special, different and superior care to our archaeological heritage and cultural heritage," for which "we must first prefer to preserve all the goods that are rescued instead of delivering them so that they are sold in expensive auctions all over the world. "

He also considered "regrettable" that the Government of Santos "had agreed to pay with rescue pieces."

"In the study we have found that the originator of the APP insisted to the Government of Santos that a different formula be sought from payment in kind, but it was the previous government that insisted on paying with pieces of the San José. We do not understand how they preferred deliver our story instead of protecting it, "Ramírez added.

The vice president explained that "in the next few days" they will present to the National Council of Cultural Heritage the final report of the exploration carried out "with the request that it recognize the San José and all the elements of the shipwreck as a unique and indivisible collection".

The goal is to declare it as a cultural heritage in its entirety and thus "not a single splinter, not a single vessel, not a single coin, not a single stone, nothing that is in the wreck area, may be marketed. "

"In the face of the contractual process and in strict application of the contractual legal parameters, we will continue with it, but under the premise that we will do the impossible so that not even a piece from which they are extracted can be commercialized. The process of extraction and conservation of the pieces require high technology and no other company showed up in the process, "he concluded.

About the conversations with Spain, which claims that San José is a state vessel, Ramírez said that with that government they have "a very friendly and very respectful relationship". "For us it is essential that we agree with Spain in the will that both governments have that it remains intact (the heritage), that it is not delivered in kind to anyone and not commercialized," he added.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

• history
• culture
• Colombia

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