Bolivia sending expert to U.S. in bid to prove it, and not Spain, deserves gold

[Judi Lynn]

Bolivia sending expert to U.S. in bid to prove it, and not Spain, deserves gold
Agence France-Presse
Published: Thursday, October 22, 2009

LA PAZ -Bolivia will send an expert to the United States to examine a gold and silver treasure whose recovery from a suspected 19th-century Spanish ship by a U.S. salvage firm has triggered an international dispute. If the 500,000 coins found by Odyssey in 2007 turn out to be from the Bolivian mining city of Potosi, La Paz intends to claim the treasure. Madrid has already laid claim to the hoard, worth an estimated US$500-million, believing it comes from a Spanish frigate, Nuestra Senora de las Mercedes. In June, a Florida judge said the coins and artifacts should be sent to Spain after declaring he lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter, but that the wreck appeared to be that of Nuestra Senora de la Mercedes.

http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2131917#ixzz0Us0mgzLU

[Peace Patriot]

1. That filthy lucre should go to the poor mining families of Potosi--"the land of widows"

Thousands of men have died of black lung or gross over-work in those mines--probably tens of thousands over the centuries--to enrich the royalty of Spain. They are the poorest, sickest, most uneducated and forlorn of Bolivia's poor. Where is "good king" Juan Carlos when you need him--to disavow this blood-soaked booty and give it to these desperately poor workers? The only time we hear from him is when he's insulting democratically elected presidents who advocate for the poor.