Poor Nations Unable to Protect Treasures : Archeological Looters Strip Latin Sites

Influenced by wars and the whims of collectors, archeological looters in Mexico and Central America are stripping away the past of many nations too poor to protect what remains of their ancient grandeur.

Adding to the damage to centuries-old Indian cities and ceremonial centers by professional looters are smaller-scale thefts by local people and accidents caused by encroaching urbanization, Mexican archeologists say.

Often looters, working for the lucrative worldwide market, find and loot the sites before they can be located by archeologists.

Inland From Acapulco

In the mountains of Mexico’s Pacific Coast state of Guerrero, inland from the resort of Acapulco, archeologists are at work on an Olmec city discovered in 1983 after local people notified authorities of a looting attempt, said Joaquin Garcia Barcena, director of pre-Hispanic monuments for the National Institute of Anthropology and History.

The city, dating from 2400 BC to 600 BC, is “one of the most important sites discovered in recent years” and could show that the Olmecs developed simultaneously on both coasts, Garcia Barcena said in an interview. He added that the looters in this case caused no serious damage.

A 1,500-year-old Mayan tomb that was opened in last May near the Rio Azul in northeastern Guatemala was considered a rare find because it was missed by looters who had dug more than 100 tunnels and stole millions of dollars in artifacts from the site in 1979 and 1980.

‘Where Evil Begins . . . ‘

“The problem is to protect these sites,” said Pilar Luna, head of the underwater archeology department of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. “One can’t investigate all of them at the same time, but they can be protected.”

“When we have the resources and personnel, and are equipped to investigate, it’s likely we won’t have any sites.”

The loss, archeologists say, is the hidden history reachable only if the pieces are studied in an undisturbed state.

“When you take it out of the country, that is only half the trouble,” said Jaime Litvak, director of the National University’s Institute of Anthropological Research. “Where the evil begins is in taking it from the site because you are not going to get the data. Archeologists need data that goes with the piece and they need decent data.”

Looting today is stimulated by collectors, often motivated by investment rather than artistic and historical interest, the archeologists said. But Litvak said many unknowingly buy fakes.

“If they (thieves) can’t loot the piece you want, they’ll fake you one,” he said. So-called experts in league with the looters “authenticate” the pieces, he said.

Styles of artifacts go in and out of vogue like old baseball cards, Litvak said, and prices rise and fall with availability and popularity.

“You can see wars in the market prices,” he said. “Central American is getting cheaper.”

In El Salvador, Nicaragua and Guatemala, where guerrilla movements are fighting the governments, sites are being looted, he said.

“If you’ve got a lawless situation and no one controls the region you’re going to have everything from planting marijuana and poppies to looting of pieces.”

The main market for ancient artifacts appears to have switched from the United States, which has an agreement with Mexico and other countries for the return of stolen pieces, to Europe, particularly Paris and Zurich, Switzerland, but Americans are still among the customers, Litvak said.

“The United States is respecting its international commitments and when it can catch a piece, it does. It is a free market in Europe.”

Looting Laws

Mexico’s laws barred private collections after 1972, required registration of any collections begun before that, and prohibited the export of artifacts, making looting more difficult than in Guatemala, which is full of Mayan treasures, or other countries without such laws.

But Garcia Barcena says it would take three to four times the 1,500 guards the institute has now to protect the major sites among the estimated hundreds of thousands in Mexico.

In Uci, sitting on archeological sites in the Yucatan Peninsula, funds for a new school ran short, so residents used rocks from ancient pyramids in the area as building material, according to Ruben Maldonado, coordinator of archeology at the institute’s regional center in Merida, 25 miles to the southeast.

“The problem that exists is always one of necessity and also of lack of knowledge,” Maldonado said.