FBI returns stolen document signed by conquistador to Mexico
The FBI returned a 500 -year -old document signed by Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés to Mexico.
The US Investigation Agency said that the manuscript page was written in 1527 and was one of the 15 pages that were thought to have been shifted from Mexico’s national archives between 1985 and 1993.
The page, which announced the payments made for the materials for the discovery, was discovered in the USA and sent back on Wednesday.
Cortés is a explorer who brought the end of the Aztec Empire and helps to pave the way for America’s Spanish colonization. The article is planning his journey, which will be the new Spain.
In height, the colony stretched to most of the West and Central North America and to Latin America.
Previously, the lost document was written after the new governor of Spain by Cortés Spain.
Mexico’s national archives counted the document among an article collection signed by Cortés – but found that it was 15 pages missing when microfilm was placed in 1993.
The recycled page carries a number written by archives in 1985-1986, which shows that it was stolen between the two catalogs.
In 2024, the Mexican government asked FBI’s help of the art criminal team to find missing documents, and noted which pages were taken and how certain pages were broken down.
FBI, the open -source research announced that the document was in the United States, he said.
The agency did not fully explain where the manuscript page was found or when it was seized.
According to FBI’s special agent Jessica Dittmer of the art criminal team, no one has been prosecuted on theft because the page has “changed hands several times” since the page was stolen.
“At that time, the undiscovered region gives a lot of taste in planning and preparation,” he said.
It was the East and South Asian regions called “Spice territory”. Europeans tried to find a faster trade route with these areas by sailing to the West, but in doing so, instead of doing so, he landed in America.
Cortés would continue to explore the North-West Mexico and Baja California Peninsula.
The return of the document comes during a political tension through the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration between Mexico and the United States and illegal migrations on the US-Mexico border.
However, as one of the largest antiques consumers, the FBI says that the US has the responsibility to resist the smuggling of works.
Dittmer said: “This is considered as protected cultural property and represents valuable moments in the history of Mexico, so it is something that Mexicans have in their archives to better understand the history.”
The FBI said it was determined to find and send back other pages that are still missing from the collection.
Another document signed by Cortés was returned to Mexico by FBI in 2023.
