Kenneth T. Tellis: "Whose gold is it anyway ... if not Latin America's?"

VHeadline commentarist Kenneth T. Tellis writes: Treasure hunters, Spain go to court! Ultimatum: A Florida court judge has given treasure-hunting company Odyssey and the Spanish government until tomorrow to settle their differences, or he'll intervene.

The issue in question is an estimated $500 million that the treasure-hunting company Odyssey recovered from a shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean last year.

• Spain believes that it has a right to claim the nearly 17 tonnes of colonial era coins found on that wreck.

So far no one has asked the REAL owners of that GOLD to lay claim to it.

If this GOLD was mined by indigenous Indians that were slaves of Spain in today's Latin America, the real claimants are the countries of Latin America, not Spain or the treasure-hunters.

So, if this GOLD came out of mines in Latin American countries, then one can understand why they should get the GOLD rather than Spain. Remember even privateers of England's Elizabeth I, such as Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh raided the Spanish Main to enrich themselves and their queen.

It was open season on the Spanish galleons that were loaded with gold forcibly taken from Mexico, and almost all of Latin America ... including Venezuela ... after being mined with indigenous Indian slave labor.

Thus, the treasure from that shipwreck in the Atlantic Ocean rightly belongs to the government and the peoples of Latin America and no one else.

Kenneth T. Tellis
kenttellis@rogers.com