The Spanish galleon San José sank in 1708 near the port of Cartagena, Colombia.
Experts suspect that the 45-meter-long ship contains one of the largest known treasures ever, with millions of gold coins and hundreds of tons of silver and precious stones.
San José has long been considered the “holy grail” of shipwrecks because the location of the ship has been a mystery for hundreds of years.
In 2015, the Colombian Navy found the ship. In February 2024, it was announced that plans were being made to begin investigating and retrieving its artifacts.
Indigenous groups from Bolivia
Now three different indigenous peoples from Bolivia have submitted a request for the UN agency UNESCO to declare the ship as “common human heritage” to which no one should have exclusive rights.
But Colombia has not signed the 2001 Convention on the Protection of Underwater Cultural Heritage, which covers such issues.
– It limits the scope of our measures in the particular case of San José, UNESCO told Reuters.
Hear why indigenous peoples are demanding a share of the profits from San José in the video above.