Mexico and US collaborate on historic document recovery

The United States government provided $150,000 to Mexico’s Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) to build a technology platform for finding and recovering stolen historical documents.

The AGN presented the project, which will use databases and artificial intelligence, at its headquarters. The platform aims to connect authorities in both countries and will include tools to monitor online auctions and websites for illicitly traded items, working with the FBI to return cultural property to Mexico.

Marlene Victoria López Torres, coordinator of the project, explained that the platform will unfold in three phases. The first phase focuses on combining existing records, including a database of over 400 currently missing documents. López Torres stated the platform will strengthen the network of heritage guardians, and noted Mexico’s obligation under the 1970 Unesco Convention to maintain a public database of stolen cultural goods.

Silvio González, a counselor at the US Embassy, emphasized the United States’ role as Mexico’s primary partner in recovering historical and cultural items, having already returned approximately 12,000 pieces. He cited the return of documents belonging to Hernán Cortés and a map of Villa de Santa Fe as examples of this cooperation. Mariana Berenice Gayosso Martínez, director of Documentary Heritage Preservation at the AGN, said the funding will support a microsite and a database for the Documentary Heritage Guardians Network.

The project will last 21 months and integrate three databases, stolen documents, recovered documents, and documents held by private individuals, with support from the FBI, US national security investigators, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, and the Secretariat of Foreign Relations. Xóchitl Patricia Aldana Maldonado of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture, highlighted the international nature of documentary heritage trafficking and the need for information sharing.