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A ufologist claims to show 2 alien corpses to Mexico's Congress

Remains of an allegedly "nonhuman" being are displayed during a briefing on unidentified flying objects at the San Lazaro legislative palace, in Mexico City, Tuesday.
Henry Romero
/
Reuters
Remains of an allegedly "nonhuman" being are displayed during a briefing on unidentified flying objects at the San Lazaro legislative palace, in Mexico City, Tuesday.

Updated September 13, 2023 at 5:45 PM ET

MEXICO CITY — Mexico's Congress heard testimony from experts who study extraterrestrials on Tuesday.

And the hearing started with a huge surprise.

Jaime Maussan, a self-described ufologist, brought two caskets into the congressional chambers. As Maussan spoke, two men uncovered the caskets, to reveal two bodies.

The corpses looked white and like stereotypical depictions of aliens — big head, little body, three fingers. Maussan said they were found in Peru in 2017 and are estimated to be 1,000 years old. One of the bodies had been pregnant, he claimed.

"These are not mummies," he said. "These are complete bodies that have not been manipulated." Speaking under oath, Maussan claimed the bodies were nonhuman.

Maussan and others have presented similar claims about alleged alien remains in the past. Scientists have dismissed them as either ancient Peruvian mummies or manipulated mummies.

During Tuesday's hearing, José de Jesús Zalce Benítez, a forensic expert and a military doctor, walked the Congress through scans of the alleged alien bodies.

He claimed the alleged aliens had big brains and big eyes — "which allowed for a wide stereoscopic vision" — and they lacked teeth, so they likely only drank and did not chew.

The hearing also included remarks by Ryan Graves, executive director of the Americans for Safe Aerospace organization. A former Navy fighter pilot, Graves was one of three U.S. veterans who testified in front of a U.S. congressional subcommittee investigating the existence of UFOs in July.

Mexico's Congress also was shown videos of Mexican pilots struggling to make sense of fast-moving flying objects before them.

"We are not alone," Maussan claimed.

On Wednesday, the day after the hearing, Graves distanced himself from it.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he said he accepted the Mexican Congress' invitation "hoping to keep up the momentum of government interest in pilot experiences" with "unidentified anomalous phenomena" or UAP.

"Unfortunately, yesterday's demonstration was a huge step backwards for this issue," he wrote. "My testimony centered on sharing my experience and the UAP reports I hear from commercial and military aircrew through ASA's witness program. I will continue to raise awareness of UAP as an urgent matter of aerospace safety, national security, and science, but I am deeply disappointed by this unsubstantiated stunt."

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Eyder Peralta
Eyder Peralta is an international correspondent for NPR. He was named NPR's Mexico City correspondent in 2022. Before that, he was based in Cape Town, South Africa. He started his journalism career as a pop music critic and after a few newspaper stints, he joined NPR in 2008.