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“The San José Galleon is indivisible, the priority is to preserve it as a submerged cultural heritage!” Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez exclaimed on her social networks on Monday, satisfied that the Colombian Ministry of Culture had declared the tender void. for a public-private partnership (PPP) with the company Maritime Archeology Consultants (MAC) to rescue the treasure of the Spanish shipwreck sunk off Cartagena de Indias in the 18th century, which had planned a payment in kind of 45% of what was found. “From the Government we concentrate on finding a solution that will avoid the delivery of parts as payment in kind,” added the vice president.
Ramírez announced that the Colombian authorities will coordinate a new call with the Ministry of Culture and the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History (ICANH) “for a contract to extract the San José galleon with archaeologists and international experts with all the technical capacity for its extraction.” .
In a public statement, Ramírez explained that Resolution 0113 of March 4, by which the Colombian Government declared the tender void “responds to the decision that had already been made with the President of the Republic and the National Heritage Council, and of course the Minister of Culture, to protect all that wreck, that heritage submerged in the San José galleon, precisely because it is a cultural heritage, it is an archaeological heritage, which is totally unrepeatable ». In accordance with the provisions of article 72 of the Colombian Constitution, she pointed out, when declaring the galleon cultural and archaeological heritage, “it has to be removed from commerce, because it is imprescriptible, unattachable.”
“That is the reason why the decision was made to declare this Public-Private Alliance that the previous government had initiated void,” by Juan Manuel Santos, explained the senior official. This public contract would have allowed the British company Maritime Archeology Consultants (MAC), behind which was Oliver Plunkett and well-known treasure hunters, such as Mensun Bound, or Roger Dooley, to loot the galleon.
In his opinion, “no Colombian could have ever understood that the coins and any ceramic piece from that galleon later appeared in the world’s antique dealers for hundreds of thousands of dollars, when it was in Colombia and it was the Colombian government’s decision to protect it.”
From now on, he indicated that the efforts of the Colombian Government will focus on “concentrating all efforts with international cooperation and with different allies in extracting the parts and pieces that can be extracted, with all the care that a heritage of this kind requires.” nature”. To this end, “what is coming now is open a new call“, he added.
Ramírez stressed that Spain “has been very attentive” to giving Colombia “all cooperation in this matter and of course also supported that decision we made two years ago to declare this heritage as cultural heritage and therefore remove it from trade.”