The Government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro is preparing for the first mission to extract materials from the Spanish shipwreck that sank in 1708 off the Caribbean coast of Cartagena. The Colombian State insists that it is not a treasure hunt, but rather a pioneering scientific and archaeological mission, with which they want to know more about the cultural identity and colonial history of Colombia. Spain has offered to cooperate on a joint museum with pieces claimed by multiple parties.
It has been said that the San José galleon has already been looted, that its loot could pay for two metro lines to Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, and that it even keeps wine in its sealed cellars. More than 300 years of rumors, which one day reached the ears of Nicolás Flores, when he was a soldier in a battalion of the Bolivian army.
He shared the information with his brother Samuel Flores, leader of the Qhara Qhara indigenous people, who began to investigate the archives of Lima, Mar de la Plata, and even the digital version of that of Seville. Since 2017, the two brothers have been claiming ownership of the shipment before three presidents of Colombia and before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). “We have seen in the documents that the gold and silver from the Potosí mines was destined to cover the emergencies of the king of Spain,” says Samuel Flores.
The same day that Colombia promises them that they will participate in the extraction mission of the San José galleon and the same day that they are invited by the ambassador to visit Spain, Samuel Flores has a virtual exam for his law degree. “I read historical documents better than digital screens,” he says.
Legal foundations that do not exclude ancestral ones. Flores explains that on the day of the extraction mission he wants to be on the ship to do a ritual with the coca leaf and ask for permission to go down to get the cargo. The Qhara Qhara ask to be recognized in this history submerged in the sea between gold coins and colonial exploitation.
Objective shared by the Government of Colombia. The Minister of Culture, Juan David Correa, avoids talking about treasure and prefers that the mission answer the following questions:
“Where did those pieces come from? What happened in Potosi 315 years ago? What was the extraction and enslavement of those towns by the Spanish colony like? Why did the route go from Potosí, to Portobelo, to Cartagena, to La Havana to end up in Spain? What happened to the Afro peoples who arrived enslaved on galleons? These conversations help us understand that the past has complex and painful dimensions and to specify that it is through understanding and a new cultural dimension that we can become more understanding and less aggressive and violent societies.
A scientific mission of the Colombian State
But more than a conversation, it is a journey “Towards the heart of the Galeón San José”, as stated in the title of the symposium held on February 22 and 23 in the city of Cartagena, in the Caribbean of Colombia. It is organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defense and is an opportunity to debate identity and colonialism, but also to gather archaeological knowledge, explain what the mission will consist of and show the technical capabilities of the Colombian navy. The investment: more than 4 million dollars so far.
The scientific operation will begin between April and May. They are the best months due to the nature of the winds and tides. When conditions are optimal, the ARC Caribe vessel will move to a point close to the wreck. The Lynx robot, made from Swedish-British technology, will descend to more than 600 meters, synchronized with a satellite, and controlled from the ship. A one-hour journey to get to the place and provide new information about the environment and objects. It will be time to use a special archaeological hand, incorporated into the robot, with which some pieces that have been left in the surroundings of the heritage site will be extracted.
The materials will receive desalination treatments, then dehydration and, finally, stabilization, to preserve them. If these scientific processes are not done well, the passage of time and contact with oxygen could break down the pieces like a cookie when dipped in milk.
For Filipe Castro, a researcher in underwater anthropology at the University of Coimbra in Portugal, the technology exists to extract the pieces. He suggests patience, but recognizes that there is risk in bounty hunters attracted by a treasure that some estimates put at more than 20 billion dollars: “In Portugal we have studied the financing processes of treasure hunters, their money laundering and relations with the organized crime”. To protect the San José, the Colombian navy always has a ship guarding the area and, despite fears and legends, Castro, after seeing the images, says that no one has yet been able to reach the point.
Ricardo Borrero is also an underwater anthropologist and is part of the mission's technical table, led by the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH). He was one of the most critical experts with the possibility of carrying out an extraction, but the scientific work being carried out has ended up convincing him.
“The veil of secrecy is losing and knowledge has been democratized: the galleon has stories for everyone. About gastronomy, fashion, shipbuilding, transatlantic and transpacific trade and also everyday life.”
In your case, the boat is what interests you most. She was built in the transition between galleons and ships of the line, which gave her the status of warship and cargo ship at the same time. That's why there were more than 600 people on board. “They are floating cities in which there are plant and fauna remains of food; ceramics, from porcelain and even slow-cooked ones, such as jugs; there are personal possessions, equipment, cannons, haunches and sails.” Plus thousands of gold coins.
Given this context, Castro considers that we are facing one of the most important explorations in the history of underwater archaeology. This mission could be the first in a Colombian Caribbean Sea, where the navy estimates that there could be about 200 galleons. A pioneering operation that is also public, with interconnection between Ministries and without private participation.
International litigation and cooperation between countries
The character of a State mission is not liked by large treasure hunting companies. The last two predecessors of President Gustavo Petro: both Juan Manuel Santos and Iván Duque, tried to make a public-private alliance to be able to extract the treasures. The tenders never came to fruition.
Complicated relationship since 1982, when the American company Glocca Morra Company, today known as Sea Search Armada, announced that it had found the coordinates of the San José galleon. He claimed, then, to have shared them with the Government for half of the loot, about 10,000 million dollars. This dispute is today an international litigation, which could last for two years, but Paula Robledo, from the National Legal Defense Agency of the State, wanted to give some peace of mind to the Colombians: the company's coordinates do not coincide with the discovery and The galleon has heritage importance.
The San José was found in 2015 during the Government of Juan Manuel Santos, and in 2020, during the presidency of Iván Duque, it was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest. A form of protection that the Government of Gustavo Petro wants to increase by declaring the place where the galleon is located as a protected archaeological area.
This heritage, archaeological and scientific character is what Spain expects to fulfill this mission. The ambassador to Colombia, Joaquín de Arístegui, vindicates the legal arguments that it is a state ship, therefore from Spain: “We hope that this archaeological site, this tomb, this sacred resting place for 600 Spaniards is respected.”
The crew died in 1708, after Charles Wagner, an English pirate, attacked the San José off the coast of Cartagena. The wreck sank with a cargo from Portobelo, in Panama, where she had collected treasures from the territories then known as Mexico, Bolivia and Peru. The objective of the shipment was to swell the coffers of the monarchy.
The Spanish Government offers to collaborate with the Colombian Government in this cultural and heritage mission and welcomes the pieces reaching a museum that is the result of cooperation between the two States. Spain ratifies the UNESCO convention on the protection of underwater heritage, something that Colombia does not do and which has raised suspicions. However, Minister Juan David Correa assured that they want to reform Law 1675 of 2013 on submerged cultural heritage to avoid a possible commercialization of the materials.
After the galleon San José, the treasure of the Quimbaya?
César Arauilo is a taxi driver who works in the old city of Cartagena. He dreams that the treasure will attract more tourists to an eventual museum and is proud that his city was the pearl of the Caribbean that the Spanish went bankrupt in order to build.
At the Naval Museum in Cartagena, one of the workers requests that the press conference be held within its facilities, next to what he considers “the best replica of a galleon in a museum in Latin America.”
Colombians take pride in the treasures hidden in their seas. They would also like to bring it out for those who are on the mainland, thousands of kilometers away, forgotten in museums of former colonizing powers. If Colombia delves fully into the heart of San José, beyond the Caribbean, it could even find treasures like that of the Quimbayam that is today in the Museum of America in Madrid. Will this be the next conversation between Colombia and Spain?
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