Cultural Heritage

The question is who should claim the artifacts found in developing countries. Honduras is a country that does not have a lot of archeological sites, except for Copan. Claiming and maintaining a site such as those in Mosquitia would be of great benefit to Honduras.

However, looting remains a problem in poor countries such as Honduras, in which looting is also sometimes conducted by drug smugglers to gain access to cash. Archeologists are often afraid that nations such as Honduras cannot protect their artifacts from looting.

Source countries such as Honduras claim that archeologists, often from countries such as the United States, are too willing to remove artifacts from the sites in which they are found. Source countries such as Honduras are trying to do a better job of protecting artifacts and keeping them at sites, or in situ. Countries such as Honduras also have a tendency...