콜롬비아 '사상 최대 100억 불 규모 보물선' 확인 Colombia says it found Spanish galleon; U.S. firm claims half of treasure(VIDEO)

후안 마누엘 산토스 콜롬비아 대통령

"300년전 콜롬비아 연안 침몰

스페인 대형 선박 산호세호

사상 최대의 보물선 발굴일 수도.."

미국회사 절반 소유 주장

source edition.cnn.com

VIDEO

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/05/americas/colombia-spanish-galleon-san-jose-found

edited by kcontents 

케이콘텐츠 편집

   후안 마누엘 산토스 콜롬비아 대통령이 5일(현지시간) 약300년전 콜롬비아 연안에서 침몰한 스페인 대형 선박 산호세호 발견을 칭송하면서 이것이 사상 최대의 보물선 발굴일 수 있다고 말했다.

산토스 대통령은 이날 기자회견에서 산호세호가 카르타헤나 남쪽 바루반도 인근 해역에서 발견됐다면서도 정확한 위치와 산호세호를 어떻게 찾아냈는지는 비밀이라며 밝히지 않았다. 그는 다만 국제 전문가팀의 도움을 받았다고 덧붙였다.

 

콜롬비아 고고학 역사 연구소의 에르네스토 몬테네그로 소장이 5일(현지시간) 카르타제나에서 

1708년 6월 8일 침몰한 보물선 산 호세호의 해저 발굴 사진을 언론에 공개하며 설명하고 있다. 

2015.12.06

콜롬비아 정부는 아직 침몰된 선박을 사람이 직접 조사하지는 않았지만 무인 잠수정이 조사한 결과 돌고래 무늬가 찍힌 구리로 만든 대포가 잘 보존돼 있는 사진을 촬영했다면서 이로써 이 침몰선이 산호세호라는 것을 확인할 수 있었다고 밝혔다.

산호세호는 지난 1708년 6월8일 당시 스페인의 식민지로부터 1100만 개의 금화와 보물들을 싣고 스페인으로 향하다 영국 전함의 공격을 받아 침몰했다. 당시 산호세호에는 약 600명이 타고 있었으며 금화와 보물들이 모두 회수되면 그 가치는 수십억 달러에서 최대 100억 달러 이상일 것으로 추산되고 있다.

제국주의 시대 스페인 침몰선 가운데 가장 중요한 선박으로 해양 전문가들 사이에 꼽혀온 산호세호는 또 오랜 동안 미국과 스페인, 콜롬비아가 모두 침몰선에 대한 권리를 주장, 법적 분쟁의 대상이기도 했다.

작고한 미 배우 마이클 랜던과 리처드 닉슨 전 미 대통령의 백악관 보좌관이던 존 얼리히만 등 미국 투자자들이 소유한 해양탐사회사 '시 서치 아르마다'는 지난 1982년 산호세호의 침몰 지점을 확인했다고 밝혔었다. 콜롬비아 정부는 침몰선의 위치를 확인한 사람 또는 회사에 발굴된 유물에 대한 지분 50%를 인정해온 해양법 조항을 파기, 시 서치 아르마다에 지분 5%만을 인정할 것이라고 밝혀 파문을 일으켰다.

미 투자자들이 미 연방법원에 제기한 소송은 지난 2011년 기각됐으며 2년 뒤 연방항소법원에서도 패소했다. 한편 콜롬비아 대법원은 산호세호의 유물들을 둘러싼 국제 분쟁이 해결되기 전 유물을 회수하라고 명령했다.

산토스 대통령은 산호세호가 지난달 27일 이제까지 알려졌던 곳이 아닌 전혀 새로운 곳에 침몰한 것으로 확인됐다고 말했다. 그는 그러나 산호세호의 유물들에 대해 어떤 해양탐사회사로부터 소유권 주장이 있는지에 대해서는 밝히지 않았다.

하지만 콜롬비아에서 시 서치 아르마다를 대표해온 다닐로 데비스 변호사는 100억 달러가 넘을 것으로 보이는 산호세호의 보물들이 회수될 것으로 확신한다고 말했다. 그는 또 산호세호가 30여년 전 시 서치 아르마다가 발견했다고 밝힌 곳이 아닌 다른 곳에서 발견됐다는 콜롬비아 정부 발표는 사실이 아니라고 덧붙였다.

산토스 대통령은 보물 회수 작업에는 수년의 시간이 소요될 것이라며 가장 중요한 원칙은 콜롬비아의 재산을 보호하는 것이라고 강조했다.

【카르타헤나(콜롬비아)=AP/뉴시스】유세진 기자  dbtpwls@newsis.com

Colombia says it found Spanish galleon; U.S. firm claims half of treasure

By Michael Martinez and Alba Prifti, CNN

(CNN)Colombia says it has found a Spanish galleon sunk 300 years ago in the Caribbean with treasure estimated as high as $17 billion in gold, silver and gems.

"Great news: We found the galleon San Jose!," President Juan Manuel Santos tweeted.

"Finding the #GaleonSanJose marks an historic milestone for our underwater cultural patrimony," Santos said Saturday, tweeting a video of the search team at sea.

The discovery off Colombia's coast is sure to intensify an international dispute over the treasure.

The hunt for the San Jose has already been a long legal saga over how the booty should be split between the Colombian government and an American company based in Bellevue, Washington.

Sea Search Armada, a group of U.S. investors engaged in marine salvaging, claims it found the site of the San Jose in 1981 and contends the Colombia government has been trying "to illegally confiscate SSA's finds."

 

Indeed, the legal dispute is seemingly as dramatic as the sinking of San Jose itself, which was destroyed in 1708 by British warships thwarting Spain's delivery of New World riches.

"The Complaint in this case reads like the marriage between a Patrick O'Brian glorious-age-of-sail novel and a John Buchan potboiler of international intrigue," U.S. District Court Judge James E. Boasberg wrote in a 2011 ruling.

SSA filed several lawsuits in the United States and Colombia, and the American company contends it won a Colombian Supreme Court ruling upholding how the treasure should be split 50-50 between the government and the U.S. firm.

Two lawsuits filed in U.S. courts were dismissed, in 2011 and 2015.

 

The galleon Jose was intercepted by British warships 

off Cartagena, Colombia.

At a press conference Saturday, Colombia Cultural Minister Mariana Garcés Córdoba contended that all legal challenges were ruled in favor of the Colombia government.

But Jack Harbeston, managing director of SSA, said in a written statement to CNN that the government of Colombia "keeps repeating the Big Lie (which is unfortunately repeated by the press) that the GOC 'won the case' in Federal District court and SSA had lost its rights to the treasure. Nothing could be further from the truth.

"It would now appear that the GOC had no intention of good faith implementation of the Colombia Supreme Court ruling by settling with SSA," Harbeston said. "Their intent seems to be to preempt and make moot SSA's right to visit its property -- while flouting its own laws. The GOC continues in its expropriation of property belonging to U.S citizens in direct violation of its trade agreement with the U.S."

Colombia threatened the firm with military force, Harbeston said. "It's the same mentality as the conquistadors," he told CNN.

In U.S. court papers, SSA claimed that it located the San Jose site on the continental shelf off the Colombia coast in 1981 and formally filed that location with Colombia in 1982.

But Colombia broke an 1984 agreement to give the U.S. salvagers 35% of the treasure and prevent the Americans from salvaging the shipwreck at the bottom of the sea, the U.S. firm contended.

The Colombian Parliament passed a law giving the country all rights to the shipwreck treasure and only a 5% finders fee to SSA, an amount that would also be taxed at a rate of 45%, according to SSA's lawsuit.

In Colombian courts, SSA won a lawsuit claiming the new law was unconstitutional, and the Circuit Court of Barranquilla ruled the treasures of the San Jose should be split 50-50 between the government and SSA, the firm said.

 

An American company claims its investors are owed half of the underwater haul.

The Supreme Court of Colombia upheld that even split, according to SSA's lawsuit filed in the United States.

The San Jose's treasures of bullion and coin was estimated between $4 billion and $17 billion as of three or four years ago, the U.S. firm says.

"Nobody knows what exactly is on there," Harbeston said.

The San Jose was the flagship and largest galleon of a Spanish fleet carrying gold and silver from the mines of Potosi, Peru. It was traveling from Portobello, Panama, to Cartagena, Colombia, but the British intercepted it off Cartagena.

"In the armada of 1708, the value of the cargo on the flagship alone exceeded Spain's annual national income from all sources. When the bullion and coins on all the galleons of the armada were totaled, it was two or three times Spain's annual income. In addition, there were trade goods of cocoa, indigo, leather, cochineal, precious woods and many other items," according to an online account posted by SSA.

The Spanish fleet's other galleons with gold, silver, jewelry, emeralds and other gems escaped the British navy.

"The galleons were lumbering bank vaults," according to SSA's historical account.

In Saturday's video posted on the Colombian President's Twitter account, an unidentified crew member is exuberant over the San Jose's discovery.

"It's a huge feeling," the crewman says. "This is the work of many years, a lot of work at that and a collaborative effort that has finally come to light, and there'll be much work ahead of us, but this was a huge triumph."

The Colombia President was equally excited at Saturday's press conference.

"Without a doubt, without any doubt, we have found 307 years after sinking, the galleon San Jose," Santos said.

The shipwreck "is one of the greatest finds and identification of sunken patrimonies, if not the biggest as some say in the history of mankind," the President said. "The Colombian government will continue its process of research, exploration and protection of underwater cultural heritage, in accordance with the laws and current public policy of the Colombian State.

"It is a scientific event that's a reminder that Colombia's history is made up of very different eras featuring people who are part of our national memory," he added.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/12/05/americas/colombia-spanish-galleon-san-jose-found/

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