The tiny alleged aliens, which lay in two boxes during the hearing, are likely about 1,000 years old, according to analyses conducted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico, he said. The bodies were recovered underground in Peru in 2017 and found wrapped in algae, which helped preserve them, he said.
The figures looked akin to E.T., the fictional movie alien. They were both white, with enlarged heads, three fingers per hand and long, skinny limbs.
“These are not mummies,” Maussan said. “These are complete bodies that have not been manipulated.”
The hearing was the country’s first on the topic of UAPs, short for unidentified aerial phenomena, better known as UFOs, or unidentified flying objects, to the public.
Forensic expert and military doctor José de Jesús Zalce Benítez then presented scans of the alleged aliens to the Congress, stating that the beings once had large brains and eyes, and have no relation to human beings.
Maussan’s claims regarding “nonhuman” remains have been disputed in the past. In 2017, he said that similar specimens, also recovered from Peru, were proof of aliens. Scientists dismissed the bodies as mummified humans.
Some social media users quickly ridiculed Tuesday’s presentation, stating that the Mexican president’s efforts looking into the alleged aliens are a mockery.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has a reputation for eccentricity. Earlier this year he claimed that he had photo evidence of an elflike creature, which set the internet alight.
“Everything is mystical,” López Obrador said of what he saw, sharing a picture online of a veiled creature with glowing eyes perched in a tree. He said it was an alux — a mischievous being in Maya lore.
U.S. officials have recently taken investigation into UFOs and alien life seriously. An office at the Pentagon established in 2022 to look into reports of unidentified objects determined that most of them were “unremarkable” things such as drones, balloons and plastic bags. The office has not found signs of alien life but, pressed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, says it will examine recent and older reports of UFO sightings.
Paulina Villegas contributed to this report.