| Venezuela’s economic meltdown had pummeled the fishing village of Guaca. Then something glistened in the water. |
| Hundreds of pieces of gold and silver jewelry and ornaments mysteriously surfaced on Guaca’s beach, easing the pain of an economic crisis and creating a local gold rush for villagers. Many of them immediately sold the objects they had discovered and bought food. |
| “It got so bad, I felt as if a rope was tightening around my neck,” said Yolman Lares, who first discovered the gold. The treasure has allowed his family to go back to eating twice a day. |
| Despite weeks of speculation over the discovery — including tales of Caribbean pirates, a sunken colonial frigate and modern smugglers — its origins are still unknown. A chemical test commissioned by The Times on a link of gold chain indicated that the piece had most likely been manufactured in Europe in recent decades. |
For several months gold and silver jewelry, ornaments, and golden nuggets have started washing up on the shore of a small Venezuelan fishing village that had been devastated by the country’s economic crisis and COVID-19.
Yolman Lares was the first to find treasure on the beach in Guaca in September when he found a gold medallion with an image of the Virgin Mary.
“I began to shake, I cried from joy,” Lares, 25, told The New York Times. “It was the first time something special has happened to me.”
Since then “dozens of villagers” have retrieved items – mostly gold rings – from the beach, including Ciro Quijada, a local fish plant worker who told the Times “This is God, setting his agenda.”
Locals have sold their treasure for up to $1,500 a piece – a boon to the village.
It is not known where the treasure has come from, but the paper notes the mystery has grown as a combination of folklore, the legends of Caribbean pirates and Christmas customs.
