SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- A fight over salvage rights to two shipwrecks off Puerto Rico's coast has touched off a new legal battle over the sensitive issue of the U.S. Commonwealth's relationship to the United States.
The controversy erupted earlier this month after a federal court gave a wealthy Florida-based treasure hunter control over salvage of two wrecks he discovered in waters near the island of Vieques, off Puerto Rico's eastern coast.
The court action provoked outcries from island officials and highlighted the ever touchy question of how much autonomy the U.S. Commonwealth has.
'This goes to the very core of our relations with the United States,' declared Velda Gonzalez de Modestti, senator for the governing Popular Democratic Party and head of the Senate's Social and Cultural Development committee.
Legislators filed a motion to stay the court order and Gov. Rafael Hernandez Colon ordered his Justice Department to investigate the extent of Commonwealth jurisdiction over the waters surrounding the Caribbean island.
'The danger of losing important archaeological and historical treasures that belong to Puerto Rico makes immediate legislation and court action imperative,' warned Speaker of the House Rony Jarabo.
The salvager, Mel Fisher, says all he ever intended was to help preserve some of Puerto Rico's historical artifacts, which he says were in danger of being lifted and sold off by scavenging amateurs.
'I'm not trying to make any money out of this. I have all the silver, gold, and emeralds I need,' he was quoted as saying.
Fisher, who has brought up millions of dollars of sunken treasure off the Florida coast since 1963, says the nationality of the ships in question is unclear and no excavations have begun.
'There is no evidence of any treasure at this time,' Bleth (cq) McHaley, vice president of Fisher's company, Treasure Salvers, said in a telephone interview from the organization's headquarters in Key West.
'One of the shipwrecks might be 16th century, but that remains to be seen.'
But island cultural experts say they doubt Fisher's motives are altruistic.
'Look at the name of the company they have formed,' said Dr. John Luis De-Passalaqua, a professor of international law at the University of Puerto Rico and adviser to Gonzalez commission. 'That can give you an idea of the object of their work.'
Further, the court order prohibits anybody but Fisher from approaching the site, De-Passalaqua protests. 'Nobody knows what they're doing there.'
The squabble is further complicated by confusion over whether Puerto Rican laws would apply to the case if the Commonwealth did have jurisdiction in the matter.
'The first thing to be done is to clarify the legal issues,' said constitutional law expert Marco Antonio Rigau. 'Whether Puerto Rico has jurisdiction over the matter is one issue.'
'Even if Puerto Rico has jurisdiction, the civil code and other present law might be or might not be enough to sustain our claim to the archaeological finds. That has to be studied.'
Fisher filed his claim in federal district court earlier this year and was awarded control of the ships.
In line with legal procedures applying to shipwrecks, federal marshals sailed to the site earlier this month and formally 'arrested' the ships.
De-Passalaqua says there are at least 600 shipwrecks in Puerto Rican waters. The two that Fisher found are in an area that saw heavy smuggler traffic in the 16th and 17th century.
'The Spanish government allowed the people of Puerto Rico to trade only with Spain, so the Dutch, English, and French brought in contraband,' he said.
Gov. Hernandez Colon argued in his previous administration that Puerto Rico was entitled to 200-mile offshore rights and apparently sees the present controversy as a possible test case of that claim.
In 1980, the U.S. Senate gave Puerto Rico jurisdiction of 10.35 miles offshore.
'Maybe what we would find there is not of monetary interest to Fisher and company,' he said. 'But whatever is done there should be done properly and in consideration of the people of Puerto Rico's heritage.'
