From Sub-Arch today:
Laura, I had the chance to speak with the people from the Spanish Naval Archives in Madrid, who were compiling information about the Mercedes, and they told me that they made quite a good case about the private cargo that was on board the ship. You see, there was private cargo on board, and a few years after the sinking of the vessel, the Spanish government paid off the owners because the state was responsible for the ship. If the owners/Descendants of the cargo were paid for their losses, then I guess it's implicit that they gave up their rights on the cargo. It was a nice try, but I am afraid that it doesn't really work.
And now it seems the cargo has to be returned to Spain. You have to assume that in the future, Spain will make sure to enforce its ownership rights on all its vessels. I recommend treasure hunters to read books on Spanish history to find out which boats were not owned by the government. But given that every ship from "the Indies" carried the "quinto real" (a 20% tax on the goods) and that Spain spent a considerable amount of resources in escorting the boats with its own war ships, I am guessing that Spain will make a claim over every single galleon that is out there. If we have one thing in Spain, that's archives. And very detailed ones. They survived the civil war and are being digitized now, and given that Spain has been a country (the same country) since at least the late 1400s, the government has the means to demonstrate its ownership over the vessels in any court.
The proof can be found in the excellent research work done by the navy archivists to compile evidence for the US courts showing that the Mercedes was in a mission for the Spanish government, and that the Spanish government indeed paid off the losses of the owners of the rest of the cargo.
It also seems that no one is buying the "I don't know which ship this is", a game Odyssey played to avoid the judicial resolution that the Juno and La Galga received (treasure hunters admitted since the beginning that the ships were Spanish but failed to ask permission to the Spanish government to excavate the site).
It was alright to work with the Spanish government when dictator Franco was in office. It's always easy to work with dictators. After his death, when Mel Fisher was working on the Atocha, Spain was just giving its first steps into democracy and their attention was focused on making a bloodless transition. Unfortunately for treasure hunters, now it seems that neither the PSOE (center-left party) nor the PP (right wing party) are willing to let go on this one. Times change.
Spain is coming after you 
You have more Spanish silver than Odyssey 
He is nearly as good as Roy Orbison.
Odyssey are working very hard at the moment, hoping to announce to the
