News for the Crapper!:Treasure hunters demand part of robot's find

Treasure hunters demand part of robot's find - Yahoo! News
La ultima vez que puse una de estas noticias era de Chile. Lo cual era raro, por que si son habituales a este blog, se habran dado cuenta de que las noticias para el cagadero salen principalmente de "Yahoo Odd News". Bueno, en esta ocasion, chocan aquellos dos cursos de la historia, y la noticia es sobre Chile pero aparecio en la mencionada pagina de yahoo.
Para los que no le hacen al ingles, se trata del asunto del tesoro de las islas de Juan Fernandez, supuestamente descubiertas por un robot y de todos los que estan pujando por quedarse con al menos un trozo del suculento botin, segun algunos cercano a los 10 billones de dolares...ahora la noticia:

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) - A debate is raging in Chile over who has the rights to a mythic treasure trove supposedly found by a robot metal detector on the islands that inspired the novel about castaway Robinson Crusoe.


The 300-year-old booty hasn't even been dug up, so nobody knows whether it's really been found, but the Chilean treasure hunters say they won't reveal its hiding place unless the government guarantees them the right to half of it.

The treasure seekers who own the robot claim the machine detected a treasure that could be worth some $10 billion.

"There's a big fuss on the island about this supposed find ... but the truth is everyone is counting their chickens before the eggs are hatched," Leopoldo Gonzalez, mayor of the Juan Fernandez islands, told Reuters by telephone.

Treasure hunters have been looking for years on the Juan Fernandez archipelago, about 400 miles west of mainland Chile, for a treasure legend says was buried there in the 18th century when the islands were a frequent refuge for pirates on long voyages in the Pacific.

The stories say Spanish sailor Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverria buried a treasure there in 1715, that it was dug up and buried again by English sailor Cornelius Webb, who sent a coded letter about its location in 1761 to British Admiral Lord George Anson. That letter was discovered in England in 1950 and sent to Chile, inspiring several fruitless digs on the islands.

GOLD, JEWELS, PAPAL RINGS

The booty is supposed to include coins, jewels, gold bars and more than one papal ring.

The archipelago is also famous because in 1704 Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned there for five years, and his survival inspired Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe."

Rodrigo Irrazabal, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company that claims to have found the treasure, told National Television the firm will only reveal the location if the government agrees to apply civil laws that say treasures should be equally divided between the finders and the government.

The company says it will give its half to three Chilean charities: The House of Christ, the Baptist Church and the Telethon, as well as to the local government on the islands.

Wagner said it found the treasure with its TX Spider robot, called Arturito -- the name means Little Arthur but sounds like Star Wars android R2D2 when spoken in Spanish. The same robot has helped in criminal investigations in Chile by finding a body and an arms cache, media reports say.

Wagner has said the treasure could be unearthed by 12 hours of digging in three sites.

Some government officials say it is not clear whether civil code should apply, or the National Monuments and Archeological Excavations law which says archeological, anthropological or paleontological finds belong exclusively to the state.

"We haven't clarified yet how the wealth would be distributed," said Paula Quintana, an official in Chile's fifth regional government. It administers the islands, home to 800 people, who work mainly in fishing.

To complicate matters, the treasure was found in a protected nature reserve and Wagner cannot dig without filing an environmental impact report.

"A lot of countries might want to claim a part of this but the truth is we've been the guardians for 300 years and that gives us a right on our own merit," Mayor Gonzalez told National Television.