A document believed to be invaluable for Colombia’s history was found in the trash by government officials, reported local media Monday.
The possession act declaring the presidency of the late Rafael Nuñez was found in the trash during a cleaning session of the installations of the northern Bolivar department’s government.
In attempts to make the day’s tasks more fun, head of the department Juan Carlos Gossain, organized a contest awarding the employee that found the oldest document while sorting papers. An official of the treasury found one to be extremely useful, a brown-covered book with crumbling and dusty papers dating back to the late 1800’s.
Upon strutinizing the book, Gossain realized that one of the documents had the heading of the former president.
“An invaluable document — I believe that nobody knew that this old book, plastered and smelling of dust, contained the historic value that it does,” said the official.
The director of the historic museum of Cartagena, Moises Alvarez, affirmed that the document had been signed by the president two years before his death.
“Effectively it is an authentic document, dating from 1892 and corresponding to the possession acts book of the government of Bolivar. The importance of the document is the fact that it registers the possession of doctor Rafael Nuñez as President of Colombia. The document says much more than what is in the letters,” said the historian who explained that, “we are talking about a document approximately 120 years old that was signed in the fourth period of his official presidency.”
After the unusual finding, the document went on to custody and officials are currently trying to establish which entity should be in charge of it.
Nuñez, born in Cartagena, was president for several terms and is famous for creating the 1886 constitution which ruled for various decades in Colombia, as well as for being the author of the national anthem.
