FBI Returns Stolen Manuscript of Hernán Cortés to Mexico

• The FBI has returned the manuscript of Hernán Cortés, stolen from the archives of Mexico.
• The document was signed on February 20, 1527.
• This is already the second returned document of Cortés in the last year.

Mexico City (AP) — Almost five centuries after the signing of the manuscript by Hernán Cortés and decades after it was stolen from the national archives of Mexico, the FBI returned the original document to Mexico in the middle.

The FBI reported that the document had changed ownership over the years, so it will not be subject to accountability.

"This is the original page of the manuscript, which was indeed signed by Hernán Cortés on February 20, 1527," said special agent Jessie Dittemore of the FBI's criminal investigations team. At that time, Cortés had conquered the Aztec Empire in 1521, two years after arriving on the territory of present-day Mexico.

During the microfilming of the document collection, signed by Cortés in 1993, archivists in the General Archive of the nation of Mexico discovered that 15 pages of the manuscript were missing. They believe it was stolen between 1985 and 1993.

Mexico reached out to the FBI last year for the recovery of this specific page.

The FBI previously sent a request to the USA and found the document, although the agency did not disclose who exactly had it. The investigation also involved the New York Police, the US Department of Justice, and the government of Mexico.

This manuscript is the second document of Cortés that the FBI has returned to the Mexican government. In 2023, the agency returned a 16-page letter from Cortés.

"Such items are considered protected cultural property and represent significant moments in the history of Mexico, which is why Mexicans preserve them in their archives for better understanding of history," Dittemore added.

Tags: Crime